Maria Orwid (1930-2009)
Maria Orwid (1930-2009)
13.02.2009 05:30:30
Maria Orwid, Holocaust survivor and guardian of the Holocaust memory, outstanding psychatry professor at the Jagiellionian University in Krakow, died on Feb. 9 in Krakow
Maria Orwid
She was born into a nonreligious Jewish family in Lviv, as daughter of lawyer Adolf Pfeffer. Sshe studied psychiatry at the Medical Academy of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where she was a student of Antoni Kępiński. In 1959 she started working and conducting research at the University, specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy. Her interests focused on posttraumatic psychopathology and family therapy. She was a honorary member of EFTA (European Family Therapy Association) and of the Polish Psychiatry Association.
Professor Orwid can be regarded as a pioneer in family psychiatry and family therapy in Poland. Furthermore, as the initiator of the therapeutical project for the Children of the Holocaust launched in 1997, she helped the group members to regain the sense of being comfortable with themselves. In the book The Last Eywitnesses she is quoted as saying: "Sometimes when my fellow psychiatrists, especially Germans, ask me to what extent and how my traumatic childhood influenced my attitude as a psychiatrist, my banal response is that in my professional work, I place the greatest value on human dignity, the dignity of the patient."
More in Polish:
- Zmarła prof. Maria Orwid
- Prof. Maria Orwidwww.holocaustresearch.pl