Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 200-201. (Budapest, 2007)
TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - FORRAI, Judit: History of a Special Healing Method for Motor-disordered Children: Conductive Education - A mozgásszervi betegségben szenvedő gyermekek egyik sajátos gyógymódja, a konduktív nevelés története
ians. Through the possibilities given by cosmopolitan liberalism they turned the capital of Middle-Europe, Vienna, into something both colourful and magical. The German language culture of Vienna-Prague-Berlin and the creations of the scientific and artistic elite became the corner stone of modern culture. Excellent representatives of literature, architecture, painting and music sprang up: Schnitzler, Hoffmannstahl, Mach, Weininger, Musil, Grillparzel, Kafka, Klimt, Schönberg, Mahler, and Strauss. In this complex and exciting cosmopolitan city spent Pető his university years. In the history of science this period stands out as the great time for founding schools of psychology. Pető was interested in all the new waves and discoveries, he spoke and read many languages. After the I. word war and later the political changes, lots of Hungarian artists and writers found asylum in Vienna. Their centre was the Hotel Imperial. The emigrants published a string of Hungarian newspapers, e.g. Bécsi Magyar Újság (The Viennese Hungarian Newspaper) or Ma (Today), edited by Lajos Kassák. 23 The scientific grounds In the last third of the 19th century the progress and development of brain-physiological research marked the beginning of scientifically founded psychology. In this period we can mention two outstanding personalities representing two completely different attitudes: Pavlov and Freud. Today it is hard to reconstruct where myth and reality parted, but Freud was certainly surrounded by lively attention: either agreement or refutation. Freud's life is woven together with his connection to the arts (essays, Moses, etc.). According to his own definition he didn't consider himself to be a doctor or a healer, but a universal thinker who melts the knowledge of bygone ages into himself, enriching it with new associations and discoveries. Pető met and befriended Jacob Levy Moreno, who that time was a well-known figure in Freudian thinking in Vienna. Moreno was born in 1889, in Bucharest, in a bourgeois family. He received his medical and psychiatric degree in Vienna. He was an independent and holistic thinker. The poets, playwrights and philosophers of Vienna made a great impression on him. He mentioned in his autobiography that he - just like Pető - also wrote literary pieces. He called Shakespeare his spiritual father and due to the impression made on him by Shakespeare, Moreno worked with the literature of drama and with the history of theatre. He paid special attention to "commedia dell'arte", the originally Italian improvised comedy, which after its birth in the 16 l century took all Europe, especially France, by storm. The essence of this genre is the story being written down only in its main lines, so there are as many variations on the theme as there are mere gesture performances as well. Moreno, together with Pető, started to work with the children loitering in the squares of the city. 24 . Af22 Hanák, Péter: Reflections about Viennese and Budapest culture at the turn of the Century. In: A Kert és Budapest. Budapest, Gondolat, 1988.130-173. 2j Lajos Kassák (1887-1967) poet, novelist, painter, essayist. Leader of the Hungarian avant-garde movement. Founder of the literary magazines: "Tett" (Deed) and "Ma" (Today). 24 Hári, Mária: The history of conductive education, Budapest, MPANNI, 1997. 25-44.
