The IPU Congratulates Dr. Rainer Funk on his 80th Birthday
The IPU warmly congratulates Rainer Funk on his 80th birthday. The executive board of the IPU and Prof. Dr. Thomas Kühn, co-director of the EFSC, thank Mr. Funk for his contributions to psychoanalysis and his support for the academic importance of the IPU.
The name Rainer Funk is inextricably linked with the work of Erich Fromm. Without Funk, the Erich Fromm Study Center (EFSC) at the IPU would not have been possible. His commitment has contributed to the fact that the work of Erich Fromm still holds an important place in academic discourse today.
Rainer Funk worked as an assistant to Erich Fromm. After his death, he not only managed Fromm’s estate but also helped to ensure that the analytic social psychology founded by Fromm continues to be of high importance in academia. Funk has made seminal contributions to clarify Fromm’s role within psychoanalysis and to further develop his work in the context of a psychoanalytical oriented social psychology. He further contributed to making Erich Fromm’s work the starting point for critical analyses of utopias and society as a whole. Last but not least, Funk is also an honorary member of the International Erich Fromm Society, which promotes a lively examination of Fromm’s thought.
