Anne Ancelin Schützenberger

Anne Ancelin Schützenberger (29 March 1919 – 23 March 2018) was a French psychologist and psychotherapist. During the Second World War she was a member of the French Resistance. She was born in Moscow, into a Jewish family, but grew up in Paris, where she received her education, leading eventually to doctorates in literature and psychology. As a result of her Resistance activities, she became regional secretary of the newly-formed Mouvement de libération nationale in 1944, and on 6 June of the same year her home was burned down by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. Having gained experience working on the MLN's journal, in 1947 she launched the Bulletin de Psychologie des Étudiants de l'Université de Paris, which she later edited, producing the first issue in the kitchen of her apartment. On 30 August 1948, she married the mathematician Marcel-Paul Schützenberger in London; they had one daughter, Hélène, but divorced soon afterwards. Through her husband she came into contact with Claude Lévi-Strauss. A Fulbright scholarship enabled her to study under Jacob L. Moreno in New York, and they remained friends until his death. During her time overseas, she worked with Carl Rogers, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson and Paul Watzlawick, among others. In Paris, she underwent traditional psychotherapy with Robert Gessain and Françoise Dolto. In 1973 she co-founded the International Association of Group Psychotherapy (IAGP), becoming its first General Secretary and Vice President; in 2003 she became its “Honorary Archivist". In 1989, she founded the École Française de Psychodrame, where she taught psychodrama. From 1967, she was director of research at the laboratory of social psychology research at the University of Nice. At the time of her death, she was Emeritus Professor there, although she had given up teaching at the age of 86. She was just short of her 99th birthday and was buried at Boulogne-Billancourt. [Doctoral thesis, Paris, Sorbonne, 1976, Université de Paris VII, Atelier de reproduction des thèses, Université de Lille III.