Frieda Fromm-Reichmann’s “Torah-peutic” Psychoanalysis

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann at home with her dog, Munie, ca. 1956.

Library of Congress

Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (1889-1957) was a psychiatrist who advocated for intensive interpersonal psychotherapy for all patients - including those her colleagues considered too difficult to treat. Her cottage in Rockville, Maryland, was designated as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 2021, recognizing Fromm-Reichmann’s innovations in psychotherapeutic treatment.¹ Her Jewish heritage shaped her therapeutic style, jokingly deemed “Torah-peutic” by patients!²

Life in Germany

Fromm-Reichmann was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, on October 23, 1889. Her parents, Adolf and Klara Reichmann, were Orthodox Jews who raised their three daughters in a long-established Jewish community and encouraged them to pursue higher education.

Fromm-Reichmann attended medical school at the University of Königsberg, graduating in 1913. She studied with Dr. Kurt Goldstein, a psychiatrist who worked with patients who had experienced brain injuries. During and after World War I (1914-1918), Fromm-Reichmann treated German soldiers who had been wounded in combat.

Throughout the 1920s, Fromm-Reichmann studied psychoanalysis, reading classic texts by psychiatrists like Sigmund Freud. She absorbed key tenets of psychodynamic theory, including the central importance of the therapeutic relationship between analyst and analysand. She established a private psychiatric practice in Heidelberg, Germany, where she met and psychoanalyzed her future husband, sociologist Erich Fromm. Although the couple ultimately divorced in 1942, they remained friends, continuing to share their mutual enthusiasm for learning about the inner workings of human minds.³

Career at Chestnut Lodge in Rockville, Maryland

Fromm-Reichmann came to the United States as a refugee in 1935, fleeing Nazism. She was recruited by Dr. Dexter M. Bullard, the medical director of Chestnut Lodge, a psychiatric hospital in Rockville, Maryland. Fromm-Reichmann served as Chestnut Lodge’s director of psychotherapy for twenty-two years.

The exterior of the Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Cottage.

NPS Photo/Lyn Causey

Building Fromm-Reichmann a private residence on the edge of Chestnut Lodge’s grounds was part of Bullard’s strategy to convince her to accept a permanent job at the institution. Her cottage, located at 19 Thomas Street in Rockville, was so close to the main hospital that she could walk there in just a few minutes if a crisis arose. Her cottage was also within sight of Bullard’s own house.⁴

Staff at Chestnut Lodge, August, 1950.

Collection of Peerless Rockville.

The layout and design of Fromm-Reichmann’s cottage reveal insights into her professional practice and her personality. She often saw patients in her house. They would enter her home through a side door, wait for her in a side room off the main hallway (which also accommodated a secretary/receptionist), and then be admitted into her office for treatment. The soundproof double doors to her office ensured patients’ privacy. On hot days, she also sometimes saw patients on her cottage’s back patio. A communication system of alarm bells connected her cottage to the hospital complex in case of emergencies.

Her tiny kitchen suggests that she wasn’t planning to cook for herself. She had most of her meals delivered from Chestnut Lodge. Not needing to prepare her own food gave her more time to spend with patients, more time to research potential promising treatments, and more time to write.

Fromm-Reichmann wrote her most well-known book, Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy, while on staff at Chestnut Lodge. The book was positively reviewed following its release, with one reviewer observing, “The masterly analysis of the doctor-patient relationship here offered is unique in its kind and can be recommended as instrumental to the understanding of any interhuman relation.”⁵ Her interest in addressing complex psychoses through psychoanalysis made Fromm-Reichmann’s research distinctive.

Fromm-Reichmann's Psychotherapeutic Methods

Fromm-Reichmann advocated for intensive interpersonal psychotherapy in the treatment of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. At the time she was seeing patients, a diagnosis of “schizophrenia” was more encompassing than it is today, including symptoms that would now likely be categorized as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and depression. She also originated the now-disproved theory of the “schizophrenogenic mother,” claiming that a dysfunctional maternal relationship in early childhood was critical to the onset of schizophrenia later in life.

Fromm-Reichmann’s most famous patient, Joanne Greenberg, wrote a semi-fictionalized memoir, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964), based on her time in treatment with Fromm-Reichmann. Although the memoir isn’t strictly autobiographical – the character based on Fromm-Reichmann is called Dr. Fried, and the teenage protagonist is named Deborah Blau – its description of “Dr. Fried’s” psychoanalytic techniques provides insight into how Fromm-Reichmann approached psychotherapy. She prioritized building a strong therapeutic relationship between herself and her patients, trusting that every interaction could communicate meaningful truths, and letting her patients move through the therapeutic process at their own pace.

For example, one of the primary catalysts for Greenberg’s depression was the antisemitic bullying she endured as a child. Fromm-Reichmann herself was no stranger to antisemitic hatred, and their shared experiences brought them closer.⁶

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann with her dog, Munie.

Collection of Peerless Rockville.

Fromm-Reichmann remained professionally active until her death. She experienced the onset of hereditary deafness, but rather than stop seeing patients, she had sessions with patients recorded and then transcribed. By reading rather than listening, she stayed engaged with her patients’ needs. She died at home on April 28, 1957. Her funeral service was held at Dr. Dexter Bullard’s home on Chestnut Lodge’s grounds.⁷

Today, Fromm-Reichmann’s cottage is managed by the historic preservation group Peerless Rockville, which rents it out as a private residence. It is occasionally open to the public during special events.

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¹ Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Cottage, National Historic Landmark Nomination, 2021.

² Harriet Freidenreich, “Frieda Fromm-Reichmann,” The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Jewish Women’s Archive, accessed March 8, 2024.

³ Gail A. Hornstein, To Redeem One Person Is To Redeem The World: The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (New York: The Free Press: 2000).

⁴ “Ann-Louise Silver on The History of Chestnut Lodge and of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann,” ISPS US, YouTube, September 21, 2021, accessed March 8, 2024.

⁵ Walter Riese, “New Methods Treat Ills of the Mind,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 29, 1950, p. 85.

⁶ Joanne Greenberg (pseudonym Hannah Green), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston), 1964.

⁷ “Psychiatrist Dies at Age 68: Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Succumbs to Heart Ill,” Baltimore Sun, April 30, 1957, p. 17.

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This article was written by Dr. Sarah Pawlicki. The article was made possible through generous support from the Mellon Foundation in partnership with National Park Foundation and American Conservation Experience.