Can lesbians speak in Hungarian illiberalism? They can and they do, but they are facing new challenges in a polarized society, with NGOs sanctioned and the issue of LGBTQ+ rights instrumentalized to gain voters' support and oppose Western liberal hegemony. In order to understand the illiberal authoritarian present unfolding in real time, local lesbian scholars and activists are challenged to develop new strategies, which also includes rethinking existing academic concepts on lesbian activism. In this paper, we address and challenge how lesbian activism in post-socialist Hungary was implicated with nationalism and ahistoricism in academic literature still considered relevant today. Drawing on our own historical account as lesbian activists and scholars in Hungary since the 1990s, we argue for an (auto)ethnographic focus on lesbian micro-politics, as it responds seismographically and actively intervenes into the illiberal culture wars.

Alice Bálint was an important and original member of the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis, with interdisciplinary interests and activities, whose work is worthy of closer attention and analysis. After presenting Alice Bálint's life, oeuvre, and critical reception, this chapter introduces her recently revealed diaries kept between 1917 and 1929. They are an especially rich and interesting set of documents, revealing her thoughts about herself and the events around her with remarkable maturity, touching upon politics, love, womanhood, professional life, and her future plans. The chapter focuses on the year 1923, which consists of entries made during her analysis with Ferenczi, dissecting the tensions and ambivalences in her most significant "object relations" – with her analyst, her husband, and her mother. These notes demonstrate how her conflicts with sexuality, motherhood, and profession relate to her attitude to the analysis and Ferenczi himself.

Gyáni Gábor monografikus kötete „a nő életének” színtereit, rétegeit, társadalmi meghatározóit és (nagyjából a 18. század vége és a 20. század eleje között bekövetkező) időbeli változásait vizsgálja európai kontextusban. A könyv sűrű, informatív, alaposan adatolt, átfogó magyar és nemzetközi szakirodalmi apparátusra támaszkodó munka, sok adattal, statisztikával kísérve; ettől nem is mindig könnyű olvasmány, bár a nyelvezet mindvégig világos és követhető.A könyv fejezetei a család, munka, gyermek/anyaság, identitás, szexualitás és erőszak témái köré rendeződnek. A kötet kirajzolja az a folyamatot, amelynek során a nők előtt megnyílt az önálló egzisztenciateremtés, a tanulás vagy az alkotás lehetősége (a politikai jogokig nem jut

This book explores the life, scholarly oeuvre and intellectual connections of the significant "first generation" Hungarian female psychoanalysts, situating their lives within the wider context of social history and the history of psychoanalysis. Budapest was one of the main centres of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century – in a period which was also central regarding women's changing roles and possibilities. Favourable social circumstances met a new, freshly developing profession's need for receptive followers regardless of their sex. This book shines a light on the social and professional factors on the life and work of these first women psychoanalysts, examining documentary evidence of their lives and drawing upon the literature of psychoanalysis, social history, and gender studies. Through their life stories, not only the history of psychoanalysis, but also the processes of 20th-century women's history and social-political developments in Hungary and the region can be reconstructed. Key psychoanalysts explored include Lilly Hajdu, Edit Gyömrői, Alice Bálint, Vilma Kovács, Lillián Rotter and twelve further women analysts. This important book will be of interest to researchers in gender studies, the history of psychoanalysis, women's and gender history, and Eastern European history.

ABSTRACT The idea of a numerus clausus at Hungarian universities was first directed against female students, the majority of whom were of Jewish origin. This intersectional study of the justifications articulated in favor of restricting the university admission of Jewish and female students highlights the shifting political and social ideas of the period. Based on archival and press sources, and drawing in particular on the faculty council minutes of the Faculties of Medicine and Humanities at Budapest University, this article explores both the common and distinct features of the rhetoric directed against female and Jewish students, respectively, and focuses on the interconnected interests and fears regarding the two social groups.

This article reconstructs Alice Bálint's personal and professional development, dilemmas and attachments, relying on her recently revealed diaries kept between 1917 and 1929. They are an especially interesting document in many respects, touching upon politics, love, womanhood and profession. The year 1923 consists of her entries during her analysis with Ferenczi, dissecting the tensions in her most significant ‘object relations’ – her analyst, her husband and her mother. These notes demonstrate how her conflicts with sexuality, motherhood and profession relate to her attitude to the analysis and Ferenczi himself. The more general ‘yield’ of the diaries is to provide a valuable insight into the social and political circumstances of early twentieth-century Hungary and its opportunities and limitations for a (middle-class, Jewish) woman with diverse talents and intellectual ambitions.