# Harry Slochower > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Harry_Slochower > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Harry_Slochower.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Slochower > Source revision: 1352790886 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Austrian-American scholar (1900–1991)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Use American English|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Harry Slochower | image = Harry Slochower.jpg | alt = | birth_name = Hersch Zloczower | birth_date = {{Birth date|1900|09|01}} | birth_place = [Bukowina](/source/Bukowina%2C_Romania), [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1991|05|11|1900|09|01}} | death_place = [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn), New York, U.S. | education = {{Plainlist| * [College of the City of New York](/source/City_University_of_New_York) ([B.S.](/source/B.S.) in philosophy and German, 1923) * [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) ([M.A.](/source/M.A.), 1924; [PhD](/source/PhD), 1928) * Universities of Munich, Berlin, and Heidelberg (1925–1926) }} | occupation = {{Hlist|Literary critic|philosopher|psychoanalyst}} }} '''Harry Slochower''' (born '''Hersch Zloczower'''; September 1, 1900 – May 11, 1991) was an Austrian-born American scholar, literary critic, philosopher, and psychoanalyst. He taught German literature, comparative literature, and philosophy at [Brooklyn College](/source/Brooklyn_College) from 1928 to 1952, and later taught at [The New School for Social Research](/source/The_New_School_for_Social_Research). In 1952 he was dismissed from Brooklyn College after invoking the [Fifth Amendment](/source/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) before a Senate committee investigating communism; the [U.S. Supreme Court](/source/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States) later ruled that he had been denied due process. == Biography == === Early life and education === Slochower was born Hersch Zloczower in [Bukowina](/source/Bukowina%2C_Romania), then part of [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary) and now divided between Romania and Ukraine. He arrived in the United States on the [SS ''Frankfurt''](/source/SS_Frankfurt) in October 1913, joining his parents, who had arrived in February 1911.Harry Slochower FBI file NY 100-26460{{Cite news |last=Fowler |first=Glenn |date=1991-05-14 |title=Harry Slochower, 90, Professor; Lost Job in Communism Inquiry |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/14/obituaries/harry-slochower-90-professor-lost-job-in-communism-inquiry.html |access-date=2021-02-05 |issn=0362-4331}} He grew up in [the Bronx](/source/the_Bronx) and studied philosophy and German at the [City College of New York](/source/City_University_of_New_York), graduating in 1923.{{Cite web |title=The Papers of Harry Slochower |url=http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pages/archives/findaid/slochower/bio.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919140915/http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/pages/archives/findaid/slochower/bio.html |archive-date=2015-09-19 |website=Brooklyn College Archives and Special Collections}} He also studied at the universities of Berlin, Munich, and Heidelberg, and received his doctorate from [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) for a study of [Richard Dehmel](/source/Richard_Dehmel).{{Cite journal |last=Kanzer |first=Mark |date=1989 |title=Harry Slochower: "The Laughing Philosopher" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26304050 |journal=American Imago |volume=46 |issue=2/3 |pages=281–286 |jstor=26304050 |issn=0065-860X}} In 1929, he received a [Guggenheim Fellowship](/source/Guggenheim_Fellowship) for a study of the "infiltration of Schopenhauer's pessimism into German literature".{{Cite web |title=Harry Slochower |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/harry-slochower/ |access-date=2021-02-05 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation |language=en-US}} === Academic and psychoanalytic career === From 1924, Slochower taught German and English to immigrants at several schools in New York. From 1928 to 1952, he taught German literature, comparative literature, and philosophy at [Brooklyn College](/source/Brooklyn_College).{{Cite news |date=1991-05-15 |title=Harry Slochower |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/466926072/ |access-date=2021-02-05 |work=Daily News |location=New York, New York}} In 1952, Slochower was questioned by the [Senate Internal Security Subcommittee](/source/United_States_Senate_Internal_Security_Subcommittee) about whether he had previously been a member of the [Communist Party USA](/source/Communist_Party_USA). He denied involvement with the party during the previous 11 years, but invoked the [Fifth Amendment](/source/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) when asked about earlier membership. The [Board of Higher Education of the City of New York](/source/Board_of_Higher_Education_of_the_City_of_New_York) dismissed him from Brooklyn College, together with [Vera Shlakman](/source/Vera_Shlakman) of [Queens College](/source/Queens_College%2C_City_University_of_New_York) and [Bernard Riess](/source/Bernard_Riess) of [Hunter College](/source/Hunter_College). Slochower challenged the dismissal in court. In 1956, the [U.S. Supreme Court](/source/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States) ruled that he had been denied due process. He was reinstated and awarded back pay of $40,000, but was later suspended again on a charge that he had lied before the Senate committee. He subsequently resigned from Brooklyn College and worked as a [psychoanalyst](/source/psychoanalysis). From 1964 to 1989, he taught at [The New School for Social Research](/source/The_New_School_for_Social_Research) in New York. Slochower's writing dealt mainly with psychoanalytic interpretations of literature. His works include ''Three Ways of Modern Man'' (1937), ''Thomas Mann's Joseph Story: An Interpretation'' (1938), ''No Voice Is Wholly Lost'' (1945), and ''Mythopoesis: Mythic Patterns in the Literary Classics'' (1970). He also contributed to philosophical, literary, and psychoanalytic journals. Slochower was president of the Association for Applied Psychoanalysis and, from 1964 until his death, was editor of the psychoanalysis journal ''[American Imago](/source/American_Imago)''. === Death === Slochower died in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn), New York, on May 11, 1991, aged 90. == Publications == === Books === * ''Richard Dehmel: Der Mensch und der Denker'' (Dresden, 1928) * ''Three Ways of Modern Man'' (New York, 1937) * ''Thomas Mann's Joseph Story: An Interpretation'' (New York, 1938) * ''No Voice Is Wholly Lost'' (New York, 1945) * ''Mythopoesis: Mythic Patterns in the Literary Classics'' (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970) == References == {{Reflist}} === Further reading === * {{cite book |editor-last1=Solomon |editor-first1=Maynard |editor-last2=Wilkins |editor-first2=Sophie |editor-last3=Kaplan |editor-first3=Donald M. |date=1979 |title=Myth, Creativity, Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honor of Harry Slochower |location=Detroit |publisher=Wayne State University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/mythcreativityps0000unse_a4v5 |access-date=2025-10-21}} == External links == * [https://www.wnyc.org/story/harry-slochower/ Harry Slochower discusses "Philosophical Principles in Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory, Ontology, and the Quest for Matrem" on WNYC] * [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26303302 Publications of Harry Slochower] {{subscription required}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Slochower, Harry}} Category:1900 births Category:1991 deaths Category:20th-century American educators Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American philosophers Category:20th-century Austrian educators Category:20th-century Austrian male writers Category:20th-century Austrian philosophers Category:American psychoanalysts Category:Austrian psychoanalysts Category:Bukovina Jews Category:City College of New York alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Category:Jewish philosophers Category:Jewish psychoanalysts Category:Jewish scholars Category:Writers from the Bronx --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Harry Slochower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Slochower) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Slochower?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.