Germaine Guex
Germaine Guex was born in France in 1904 and died in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1984. She studied psychology in Geneva and after receiving her diploma from the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau became Jean Piaget's assistant in the psychology laboratory. Above all, Guex was drawn to clinical work, so in 1930 she was recruited by psychoanalyst Dr. André Répond, Director of Psychiatry in the Malévoz clinic, Valais Switzerland, to oversee a psychoanalytically-inspired medical and psychological unit, the first of its kind. The work, which focused on children, parents and teachers, aimed at being both a therapeutic and preventative facility. During her years in Malévoz, and through her connection with Répond – who was a member of the Société Suisse de Psychanalyse – Guex became familiar with the work of Freud. Then in the 1940s she moved to Lausanne, began working as a psychoanalyst, and initiated the development of psychoanalytic training in French speaking Switzerland. It was also during this period that she and the psychoanalyst Dr. Charles Odier became companions.
The Abandonment Neurosis
First published in 1950, La névrose d’abandon was and still is a ground-breaking work. Guex’s research turns on two clinical observations: the frequent occurrence of analysands whose neurotic... (more)