Susanna Rubinstein
Susanna Rubinstein was an Austrian psychologist and the first woman to earn a doctorate from the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Biography
Rubinstein was born in Czernowitz on 20 September 1847 into the Jewish family of the banker and parliamentarian Isak Rubinstein. Her mother died when she was young.She and her three siblings were greatly encouraged to pursue their education, even though this was a time when girls were often denied that opportunity.
At first, her father arranged for Rubinstein to take private lessons but, when it came time to finish high school, she was unable to take the necessary examinations from tutors, so she did so before an academic committee from a boys' high school.
Rubinstein went on to study psychology and German literature at the University of Prague, in the spring of 1870, and then at Leipzig University three years later. After being denied admission to the doctoral program in Basel, Switzerland, she enrolled at the University of Bern and there gained her Ph.D. in 1874 in psychology and German literature. By doing so, she became the first woman to receive a doctorate in Bern. Her thesis was "Uber die sensoriellen und sensitiven Sinne".
With the completion of her doctorate, Rubinstein spent a year in Germany visiting Leipzig, Heidelberg and Munich.
Her 1878 work "Psychologisch-Asthetische Essays" has been described as "a major contribution to the study of human emotions". It was reprinted in 2012.
Susanna Rubinstein died 29 March 1914 in Würzburg, Germany.