Modern Times

At the shiny new U2 Schottenring station, a middle-aged couple in full Alpine regalia sauntered down the gleaming, high-tech corridor.

On a mild and overcast day in mid-October, representatives from 14 countries convened for the Central European Initiative’s (CEI) first ministerial meeting on science and technology in Trieste, Italy.

For the doctors of the university clinic for oral surgery on the 7th floor of Vienna’s General Hospital (AKH), it is a normal day. Perhaps not a good day, but a normal one. For Nathan*, the patient sitting across from them, it will be traumatic.

As Syria’s resident Bashar al-Assad continues his bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in defiance of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the question of the human rights movement’s political force is as timely as ever. 

We’re going on a journey,” Philip Zimbardo warned his audience, convened by the Webster University Psychology Department at the Amerikahaus May 31, before embarking on a meandering, two-hour lecture.

To most people, mentioning the words “Vienna” and “psychology” in one sentence quickly leads to a conversation about Sigmund Freud, or perhaps Alfred Adler, C.G. Jung, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein or Viktor Frankl, or even the assiduous work of Karl and Charlotte Bühler between the wars.

One of the first things psychotherapist Jonni Brem learned about domestic violence was that what a man considers violent may be quite different from what is experienced by a woman. So at Vienna’s Männerberatung they always begin by hearing the story from both sides.

Not long ago, marriage seemed like a solution to every woman’s future. It brought financial security, status in society, and children to start the picture-perfect family she had always dreamed of.

Today, the equation has been changed: With access to education, financial independence and reliable birth control, marriage is not the only answer anymore. A woman can make her own place in society through a job or career that will also support her financially, and she can even chose whether or not she wants children. And, if she opts to start a family, she can even do it on her own and will be accepted in the majority in most developed societies.