Henry (Hinko) Freund
I've known the name "Henry Freund" for many years, but didn't know about "Hinko Freund" until I was at the International Stuttering Association conference in Cavtat, Croatia in 2007, sponsored by the Stuttering Support Organization of Croatia, "Hinko Freund." The "Hinko Freund" website (in the Croatian language) explains where the name of their organization came from. A speech by Irene Vincent, on the website translated by the Google translation service, provided some of the following information (with apologizes for any misunderstanding). (http://www.udruga-hinkofreund.hr/)
"Hinko Freund" established on May 18, 2000, is the first Croatian Association to help people who stutter. The association headquarters are at the Children's Hospital in Zagreb and named after Hinko Freund, a native of Vukovar, Croatia, born November 23, 1896. He was a medical doctor, graduating in neuropsychiatry in Vienna in 1924, establishing himself as a speech therapist beginning in the 1930's. He laid the scientific foundations of Croatian speech pathology and provided guidelines for the field of speech pathology in Croatia. His far-reaching vision was not fully recognized until several decades later. It was not until 1962, that his idea of training personnel to work with people with speech disorders was established in Croatia as a branch of special education.
Stuttering from an early age, as a young man Freund visited the most famous European speech therapists in an effort to overcome his own stuttering with little success, but through his own experience he left a very noticeable mark on the science of speech pathology.
Freund had numerous publications on various disorders of speech, especially stuttering. He lectured and taught courses for doctors and teachers. He was recognized as an outstanding specialist for disorders of speech and voice, working in an ear-Nose-and-Throat clinic in Zagreb, a state-run clinic, a City school, and in private practice.
In 1940, when Hitler was shaping the European political scene, at the age of 44 Henry Freund left Croatia and emigrated to America, where his scientific work continued in collaboration with the biggest names in American speech pathology circles.
His connection with the Speech Foundation of America (later the Stuttering Foundation of American and now the Stuttering Foundation), established by Malcolm Fraser, also a person who stuttered, connected him with "Ten Authorities in Search of an Agreement" - the December 1957 gathering in Nassau, Bahamas, sponsored with the support of Fraser. These individuals were considered several of the leading authorities in the area of stuttering. A picture of this group is below.
Back row: Freund, Luper, Johnson, Sheehan, Van Riper
Front row: Williams, Fraser, Ainsworth, West
A skit was composed as a therapeutic exercise by Joseph Sheehan with roles taken by the wives "with connivance of" Vivian Sheehan. The text of the skit is available online.
Freund also participated in a similar conference in 1961-62 in Northern Michigan.
Pictures from both conferences are available at http://www.stutteringhelp.org/sites/default/files/Migrate/60thnewsletter.pdf
Henry Freund's association with the SFA garnered an invitation to write chapter 13 in the still popular book, Advice to Those Who Stutter. Part of Freund's chapter, "Self Improvement after unsuccessful treatments" is online.
Freund's professional colleague and friend, Charles Van Riper wrote an article "Henry Freund, 1896-1982," Journal of Fluency Disorders, Volume 9, May, 1984, 93-102. The abstract of the article states: "Dr. Henry Freund was one of the foremost authorities on stuttering in Europe, and his contributions on the psychology of the disorder continued after emigrating to this country. He was a neurologist and psychiatrist, as well as a speech pathologist. He died in 1982, and in this posthumous paper he describes his career and personal experiences, while undergoing therapy from the most famous European speech pathologists of his time. He also offers some cogent comments about current therapies and future needs." (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0094730X/9/2)
Sharon M DiFino, PhD, Assistant Professor of Speech and Language Pathology at College of Health Science at Jacksonville University spoke at the 2014 Florida Conference of Historians annual meeting in St. Augustine Jan. 31-Feb. 1 on a case study of Henry Freund, relying heavily on the above Van Riper article for information, and gave permission to include an edited version of the PowerPoint presentation.
Some of Henry Freund's writings
- Freund, H. (1934a). Ueber inneres Stottern. Zeitschr. Ges. Neurology Psychiat. 151, 585-98
- Freund, H. (1934b) Zur Frage der Beziehungen zwischen Stottern und Poltern. Monatschr. Ohrenheilk. Laryngol. Rhinol., 68, 1446-57.
- Freund, H. (1955). Psychosis and Stuttering. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders, 122, 161-72
- Freund, H.(1966) Psychopathology and the Problems of Stuttering. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Henry Freund died June 23, 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery next to his wife, Julia (1907-2003).
