Ernst Prelinger

1926 - 2021

Ernst Prelinger
December 16, 2021
Ernst Prelinger, of Killingworth, Connecticut, died on December 16th. He was 95. He was born in Vienna on September 7, 1926 to Heinrich Prelinger, an experimental physicist and early television researcher, and Magda Prelinger (nee Jäger-Sunstenau), the first woman to earn a law degree from the University of Vienna. He lost his parents as a teenager and was then raised by his grandmother, Hertha Anna Editha Jäger (nee Mautner von Markhof) and other extended family members. Growing up in Vienna's 3rd District, he was educated at the Gymnasium Kundmanngasse in Vienna and from 1944 served briefly as a conscript in the German Army before attending the University of Vienna, from which he earned his PhD in psychology in 1948. He also studied at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute between 1947-50. After World War II he emigrated to the United States, becoming an instructor in psychology at University of Pittsburgh and later at Brooklyn College, until he was drafted in the Korean War and served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and Army Reserves, from which he retired with the rank of Captain. He was employed as a clinical psychologist at Fort Dix and at Walter Reed Army Hospital between 1954-56 and at Yale University's Division of Student Mental Hygiene (later Yale Health) from 1956 until his retirement in 2007 at 80. He also served as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale University School of Medicine and as a faculty member at the Western New England Institute of Psychoanalysis in New Haven, of which he was a life member.
Over his long career, he bettered the lives of hundreds of people as psychoanalytic psychotherapist, trained many psychologists and psychoanalysts and administered psychological testing to many thousands. He maintained a busy private practice until retiring at age 89. He served as clinical psychologist and expert witness in many legal proceedings. He was proud to be an Erikson Scholar at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Mass. in 1985. In addition to over 50 professional papers and formal presentations, he co-authored Children Tell Stories (1963, with Evelyn Goodenough Pitcher), the first systematic and analytic collection of young children's stories to be published; An Ego-Psychological Approach to Character Assessment (1964, with Carl Zimet); and The Craft of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2005, with Angelica Kaner). He served as a board member of the Family Service of New Haven from 1962-70 and as a board member of the Foote School Association in the early 1960s. He maintained productive intellectual engagements with colleagues both in and outside his field, including historian Peter Gay, and was described by Robert L. Dietle and Mark S. Micale as one of New Haven's "psychoanalytic illuminati." His psychoanalytic research and practice was a principal pole of his working life and he deeply valued his professional interactions and affiliation with the Western New England Institute, even as he outlived most of his long-time colleagues.
He was an enthusiastic sailor and member of the North Cove Yacht Club, a hiker and outdoorsman who loved walking the roads of Killingworth and the trails and sands of Hammonasset with his wife Rosemarie, and an early adopter of microcomputer technology, active in the New Haven Kaypro Users Group starting in 1982 and a beta tester for CP/M applications. He read widely in both English and German, and his conversation was enriched by his vast knowledge of European history and culture.
He leaves his beloved wife Rosemarie Werba Prelinger; a brother Kurt (Rikki), of Munich and Bernbeuren, Germany; a close cousin Wolfgang Glück (Sigrid) of Vienna; four children, Richard (Megan Shaw Prelinger) of San Francisco, Elizabeth (Stephen Messner) and Jane (Michael Stadter), both of Washington, D.C, and Polly of Reston, Va.; four grandchildren, Benjamin Messner (Laura Herman) of Washington, D.C., Fred Messner of Cambridge, Mass., Joanna Rothkopf (Brad Becker-Parton) and Laura Rothkopf (Aaron Nemo), both of Brooklyn; and four stepchildren, Edith Holden Roth (Richard Roth) of Mamaroneck, N.Y., Katherine Prescott Holden (Joshua Jaffe) of Sharon, Conn., Alexander Werba of Wolcott, Conn. and Roland Werba of Cheshire, Conn. He was previously married to Dorothy Prelinger (1950-65) and Catherine Magill Prelinger (1965-91). A memorial service is planned in the future.