The Royal Hungarian National Lunatic Institute (Lipótmező)

In Lipótmező (outskirts on the Buda side of Budapest), the Royal Hungarian Lunatic Hospital is founded in 1868 and starts receiving patients. In 1898 it is renamed the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology. The institute became the center of Hungarian psychiatry. It provided patient care of an up-to-date high standard. After the fall of state socialism, the Institute operated under the name OPNI until its closure in 2007.

Károly Lechner's Psychiatry Department and Psychiatric Hospital in Kolozsvár

In 1889 Károly Lechner is appointed head of the newly established Department of Neuropsychology and Forensic Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine of the Franz Joseph University of Kolozsvár. The Institute operated until 1919 when the city fell into Romanian hands and became known as Cluj-Napoca.

Pál Ranschburg’s Institute of Psychophysiology

Pál Ranschburg establishes an experimental psycho-physiological laboratory at the University of Budapest, at the Department of Psychiatry in 1899. The Laboratory of Psychophysiology was a pioneering place for experimental psychology. The first Ranschburg laboratory operated in this form until 1902 but continued at another institution in 1906.

Pál Ranschburg’s Royal Hungarian Laboratory of Therapeutic Pedagogy and Psychology

The second Ranschburg laboratory opens in 1906 in the building of the Institute for Special Education at 6 Mosonyi u., Budapest VIII. District. It is called the Hungarian Royal Laboratory of Special Education and Psychology. It is a lively and highly acclaimed experimental research center with wide international contacts under Ranschburg’s leadership .

The Hungarian Psychoanalytical Association

The Hungarian Psychoanalytical Association is founded in 1913 under the leadership of Sándor Ferenczi, a close friend and associate of Freud. Members are István Hollós, Sándor Radó, Lajos Lévy, Ignotus. Psychoanalysis grows rapidly in the Budapest coffee-house culture and among Hungarian artists and literary.

The 5th International Psychoanalytic Congress in Budapest

The 5th International Psychoanalytic Congress on War Neurosis is held on 28-29 September 1918 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary, where Freud attends. The meeting was personally welcomed by the Mayor of Budapest, István Bárczy, and was also attended by representatives of the army of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

The Department of Psychoanalysis and Révész's Laboratory of Psychology at the University of Budapest

In 1919, during the three months of the Soviet Republic, a Department of Psychoanalysis is established at the University of Budapest under the leadership of Sándor Fereczi and a Laboratory of Psychology under the leadership of Géza Révész. With the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, both were abolished.

The first wave of emigration begins

Between 1920 and 1924 the first wave of emigration took place from Hungary due to the „white terror” and the surge of antisemitism after the fall of the proletarian dictatorship. Those intellectuals emigrated who exposed themselves on the side of the communist regime, among them several psychoanalysts.

The Hungarian Association of Individual Psychology

The Hungarian Association of Individual Psychology is founded in 1927 under the chairmanship of István Máday. Máday is in contact with Alfred who visits Hungary in 1934 and gives a lecture to individual psychologists.

The Hungarian Psychological Society and The Hungarian Psychological Review

The Hungarian Psychological Society announces its foundation at the General Assembly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1928. Pál Ranschburg is elected president, and István Boda is secretary. The official journal of the Society, the Hungarian Psychological Review, is launched by Ranschburg, it is edited by István Boda. Both the Society and the Journal were closed down, in 1948 by political oppression. The journal was relaunched in 1961.

The Institute of Educational Psychology at the University of Szeged

The first Institute of Educational Psychology in Hungary is established at the Ferenc József University of Szeged in 1929, under the leadership of Dezső Hildebrand Várkonyi. This institute is considered the first permanent university psychology institute in Hungary.

Schnell Institute Royal Hungarian Institute of Child Psychology

In 1934, after a reorganization, an Educational and Career Counsellor Center starts to work in the Royal Hungarian Institute of Child Psychology. After the war rural centers started to work but in 1949 they were closed down, and only the Budapest centre was allowed to continue operating, on condition that only methods developed by Soviet psychologists could be used.

Institute of Psychology at Pázmány University in Budapest

Under the leadership of Harkai Schiller, an Institute of Psychology is established in 1936 at the University of Budapest. A rich agenda of basic and applied research is carried out in the institute.

The second wave of emigration begins

Between 1938 and 1941 the second wave of emigration took place from Hungary due to the increasingly precarious situation of Jews. In the late 1930s, there was a repeated surge of antisemitism and anti-Jewish decrees were introduced.

The third wave of emigration begins

Between 1946 and 1957 the third wave of emigration took place from Hungary. Those intellectuals left the country, who did not accept the dictatorial rule of the communist party. This time period included emigration due to the communist takeover and emigration following the crushed revolution in 1956.

Communist Party resolution

The Hungarian communist party (MDP) abolishes all scientific trends of Western origin and their institutions in the year of the „communist takeover”. A party resolution condemns pedology (child study) as representing bourgeois psychology.

The Pavlov Commission

The Pavlov Commission is established to promote the broad scientific dissemination of Pavlovian doctrines, but its functioning helped the survival of psychology during these years. It was headed by the academicians László Mátrai and Pál Gegesi Kiss, MD.

The Psychology Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Pál Gegesi Kiss, a physician, becomes the chairman of the Psychology Committee. The Committee had a significant influence on the revival of the psychology profession. Gegesi Kiss was the chief editor of the newly re-launched Hungarian Psychological Review and president of the Hungarian Psychological Society.

The Hungarian Psychological Society and the Hungarian Psychological Review relaunch

In the spirit of the acceptance of Marxist psychology, the Hungarian Psychological Society and the Hungarian Psychological Review are relaunched in 1960.

The first psychology major program starts in the country, in Budapest

In the academic year 1963-64, the first small class of psychology students is started at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. The psychology major program involves 5 years of education.

The second psychology major program starts in the country in Debrecen

A psychology major program starts at the University of Debrecen, it involves 5 years of education.

The Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society is re-established

During the 1950s and 1960s, psychoanalysis survived due to the few analysts who stayed in the country and worked illegally. From the 1970s a slow process of opening up began. In the year of the fall of state socialism in 1989, the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Association was re-established.

The third psychology major program starts in the country, in Pécs

A psychology major program starts at the University of Pécs, it involves 5 years of education.

The fourth psychology major program starts in the country, in Szeged

A psychology major program starts at the University of Szeged.