Jacob L. Moreno | |
---|---|
Born | Iacob Levy May 18, 1889 Bucharest, Romania |
Died | May 14, 1974 Beacon, New York, U.S. |
(aged 84)
Residence | New York, U.S. |
Fields | Theory, education, psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, social psychology |
Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Known for | Sociometry, psychodrama |
Influenced | Kurt Lewin, Martin Buber, Fritz Perls |
Spouse | Zerka T. Moreno |
Jacob Levy Moreno (born Iacob Levy; May 18, 1889 – May 14, 1974) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychosociologist, and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy. During his lifetime, he was recognized as one of the leading social scientists.
Jacob Levy Moreno was born in Bucharest in the Kingdom of Romania. His father was Moreno Nissim Levy, a Sephardi Jewish merchant born in 1856 in Plevna in the Ottoman Empire (today Pleven, Bulgaria). Jacob's grandfather Buchis had moved to Plevna from Constantinople, where his ancestors had settled after they left Spain in 1492. It is thought that the Morenos left Plevna for Bucharest during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, following the Plevna rabbi, Haim Bejarano in search of a more hospitable environment. Jacob Moreno's mother, Paulina Iancu or Wolf, was also a Sephardi Jew, born in 1873, and originated from Călăraşi, Romania.
In 1895, a time of great intellectual creativity and political turmoil, the family moved to Vienna. He studied medicine, mathematics, and philosophy at the University of Vienna, becoming a Doctor of Medicine in 1917. He had rejected Freudian theory while still a medical student, and became interested in the potential of group settings for therapeutic practice.