Jolan (Jolanda) Jacobi. geb. Székács

Jolán JACOBI (née Jolán Sarah Etelka SZÉKÁCS, formerly SCHWARZ), born on March 25^th, 1890 in Budapest, Hungary/Austro-Hungarian Empire (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Budapest/Hungary, citizenship 1938: Hungary), daughter of senator and privy councillor Anton/Antal Székács (industrialist). She successfully passed her school-leaving examination (Matura) at the Hungarian Royal State Girls' High School in Budapest on June 5^th, 1908, and married in Budapest the distinguished lawyer Dr. Andor/Andreas Jacobi shortly thereafter in 1909. They lived in Budapest, where their two sons were born. In 1919 she emigrated from Hungary to Austria and lived in Vienna's 1^st district, Stadiongasse 4.
In Vienna, she was active in the cultural and social spheres and, as deputy chairwoman of the Austrian Cultural Association ("Oesterreichischer Kulturbund"), invited many European writers, politicians and scientists - including C. G. Jung - to Vienna for lectures and organized exhibitions of works by famous painters and sculptors.

When her sons had passed their school-leaving exams, son Ernst in 1934 at the Schottengymnasium in Vienna, not only he began to study at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1934/35 (chemistry) but also his mother Jolán Jacobi, she with a focus on psychology especially with Karl and Charlotte Bühler. She was last enrolled at the Philosophical School in the spring term of 1938 in the 4^th year of her studies and took lectures in psychology, philosophy, ethnology and prehistory.

Her family had long ago converted from Judaism to Catholicism, but according to Nazi criteria she was considered Jewish, but as a Hungarian citizen she was not subject to Nazi racial laws and was still able to complete her studies in 1938.

She had already registered for the final examinations ("Rigorosen") in psychology on January 12^th, 1938, and had taken the "one-hour viva" or "Philosophicum" on May 24^th, 1938, with the prehistorian Prof. Oswald Menghin and the classical archaeologist Prof. Camillo Praschniker. She submitted her dissertation "Aging. Versuch einer psychologischen Studie", supervised originally by Charlotte and Karl Bühler, examined by the psychologist Otto Tumlirz and the philosopher Hans Eibl, which had also been approved on June 28^th, 1938. On July 6^th, 1938, she had also passed the second viva voce examination with Tumlirz and Eibl and was thus able, after a long period of uncertainty, to complete her studies after all and to receive her "Dr. phil. doctorate on July 11^th, 1938. As a Hungarian citizen, she was not subject to the professional ban that was usually imposed on "non-Aryan doctorates" at the same time as graduation.

Her son Ernst, a Protestant and also a Hungarian citizen, was also in the 4^th year of his chemistry studies in 1938, but was unable to complete them in Vienna.

She fled penniless to Switzerland to start a new life and began her studies and analyses with C. G. Jung in Zurich, and within a few years she became one of the leading interpreters of his school of analytical psychology. She is credited with bringing Jungian psychology into an organized system, especially through her book The Psychology of C. G. Jung (Yale), which went through numerous German and English editions and was translated into nine languages.

She was co-founder and director of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, taught there and at the Institute of Applied Psychology, the Adult Education Center, and the University of Zurich, as well as in other European countries, in England, and in the United States.  She did research at the Zurichberg Clinic and specialized in art therapy. She also ran her own psychoanalytic practice in German, Hungarian and English.

Jolande Jacobi published more than one hundred works; among her best-known books, in addition to the aforementioned "The Psychology of C. G. Jung," are.
 "Psychological Reflections: a Selection from the Writings of C. G. Jung" (1945), "Complex, Archetype, Symbol in the Psychology of C. G. Jung's" (1957), "Women's Problems, Marriage Problems" (1968), "From the Realm of Images of the Soul: Paths and Detours to Itself" (1969), "The Path to Individuation" (1971), "The Mask of the Soul: Insights into the Psychology of Everyday Life" (²1972), "Paracelsus: Living Legacy: a selection from his complete writings" (1942, 1991, 2004).

The Austrian government awarded her the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit in 1935 and the Decoration of Honor for Science and Art in 1972.

Jolande Jacobi died suddenly on April 1^st, 1973 in Zurich/Switzerland, in the middle of preparations for an exhibition in honor of C. G. Jung's hundredth birthday in 1975.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1934-1938, final examination files and registry ("Rigorosenakt und -protokoll") PHIL No. 14105, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") PHIL 1931-1941 No. 2788; WEITZEL 2000, 97, POSCH 2009 365f.; Jolande JACOBI, Complex/Archetype/Symbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung, Princeton, NJ 2020, 241f.

Herbert Posch