Introduction to

Fate-analysis
The life sketch of
Lipót Szondi
(internationally known:
Leopold Szondi)
Lipót Szondi (1893 – 1986)

„FATE IS ALWAYS ON THE MOVE”

Early experiences
 1893 - Born in Nyitra.
 Father: shoemaker, who gave up his labour
and dealt with studying the jewish holy
scriptures.
 Mother: was an illiterate, unwholesome
woman who died early.
 Lipót was born in his father’s second
marriage, he was the 12. child from the 13.
Early experiences…

 1898 – the family moved to Budapest, the

elder brothers supported the family.
 Original family name: Sonnenschein, he
changed his name before graduation in the
same time with some other relatives.
 Clever in studying - was a „bookworm”, who
adored literature.
 Key experiences in Szondi’s
life
 The first experience:
The novels of Dostojewski – the question of
choice.
As a 18 year-old student he worked out a
theory that the writer typified murderers and
holy people in his novels because he had also
carried them in himself as a familial heredity.
Key experiences…
 The second personal experience:
In the World War 1. he was wounded and got
into hospital in Wien, where he got
acquainted with a blond, Saxon language
teacher who had a deep impression on him.
One night he had a dream about his elder
brother…
He realised that he wanted to repeat a
familial fate – he wanted his own fate…- left
the hospital and went back to the front.
 Key experiences…
 The third personal experience:
Early in Szondi’s praxis a married couple seeked
out Szondi, and the wife complained about
different fixed ideas. The symptoms were very
similar to an old woman’s case for Szondi, and
when he told it to the couple, the husband
recognized his mother in the old woman.
„Why did a man marry a woman who later suffers
from the same illness as his mother?”
Studies and profession

 He got a degree at the Medical Faculty of

Pázmány University.
 Became a psychiatrist and internist as well.
 Started to work at Paul Ranschburg’s
experimental psychological laboratory for
handicapped children,
 and at the Neurological and Psychiatric
Department of Apponyi Policlinic.
The Hungarian period …

 1925 – his book published: „A fogyatékos

értelem” („The Handicapped Mind”)
 1927 – he got a laboratory from the Ministry
of Education at the Teacher Training College
for Handicapped Children where he gave
lectures on psychopathology as well.
 The main goals of the laboratory were:
research and education.
The Hungarian period …
 Very detailed anamnesis with the handicapped
patients: biological examination, life events (from
the birth), character of the child, social and
mental environment, the features of the family
members („family trees”: illnesses, death,
occupation).
 Multidimensional approach of more than 1000
children and their 15 000 relatives.
(These examinations later became the empirical
background of the theory of fate-analysis.)
Beginnings of Fate-analysis…
 1937 – „Analysis of Marriages” was published
in Hague (Netherlands).
 The new concept of choosing a partner: the
genotropism (the nearness of the genes
attract people to each other.)
 The 3 functions of unconscious: 1. personal
unconscious (S. Freud), 2. familial
unconscious – „what is in the family?” (L.
Szondi), 3. collective unconscious (C.G.
Jung).
The Szondi Projective Test

 1937 - Szondi introduced the concept of fate-

analysis, genotropism and the Szondi-Test
into the work of the laboratory („genotest”) as
well.
 The colleagues’ enthusiastic work started -
the meanings of the test-signs were worked
out at that time.
The end of the Hungarian
period
 1941 - He lost his workplace at the College
because of his Jewish origin.
 1944 – Bergen-Belsen, concentration camp
(They spent 6 months there with the family:
the wife and two children /Vera and Peter/).
 The special way how Szondi survived this
period (organized a humanistic circle,
practiced, and wrote his fate-analytical books
in his mind.)
The Belief function of man
 Szondi’s experience with his father, who was
religios and dedicate his life to his belief.
 Szondi’s transcendence: one of the most
important functions of the ego is the belief
function (belief in God, or all kind of
intellectual values: arts, science, etc.)
 If one has no belief: psychopathology occurs.
If he/she can believe: the recovery starts…
The Swiss period
 1945 – Swiss reception camp in Caux.
 Oscar Forel psychiatrist invited him to work
with him (Private Sanatorium in Pragnins).
 1946 – 1986 - He lived in Zürich.
- He published his books on fate-analysis
and the Szondi Test.
- He founded the Swiss and the international
societies of fate-analysis.
The „Szondiana”

 The fate-analytical review was published for

the first time in 1953, for a long time it was
the issue of the international conferences.
 After the foundation of the Szondi Institute the
review published regularly, now it is published
once a year.
The Szondi Instutite
 1969 - Szondi got from a mother of a recovered
patient 7 million Swiss francs to establish the Szondi
Institute.
 1970 – the „Stiftung Szondi-Institut” opened.
 The goals of the institute: education (training of the
fate-analytical therapists) and research.
 The international conferences are organized in every
3 years (in 2005 it was in Pécs, at our Institute – the
last one was in Budapest, 2017)
 Next conference 2020 Bucharest!
Honours

 1970 – Dr. honoris causa from University of

Löwen,
 and in 1977 – University of Paris VII,
 1982 – Paul Ranschburg Medallion from the
Hungarian Psychological Association.
Szondi :

„I want to be a subject at a
university, not a professor”