Joanna Flatau
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Born on	February 4, 1928
Birth place	Warsaw Warsaw Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most... , Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Died on	April 19, 1999
Place of death	Warsaw Warsaw Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most... , Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

Joanna Antonina Flatau (February 4, 1928 in Warsaw, Poland - April 19, 1999 in Warsaw) was a Polish psychiatrist. She developed innovative techniques for treating nervous disorders and established psychiatry services for Warsaw students. .

Life

She was one of two daughters of the well-known Polish neurologist Edward Flatau

Edward Flatau

Edward Flatau was a Polish neurologist. His work greatly influenced the developing field of neurology. He established neurobiologic and neuropathological sciences in Poland...

. She described her early initiation into psychiatry: "Mr. Maurycy Bornsztajn was a psychoanalyst who worked, at the beginning of the war, in our Warsaw apartment. I lay near the door and eavesdropped on his conversations with patients. These were fascinating lessons in psychiatry."

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 she participated in the Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

 and afterward was transported to work in the Wiener Holtzwerke factory. She wrote in her diary: "I remember a powerful, overwhelming nostalgia for Warsaw. In my dreams I walked down Marszalkowska Street toward Plac Zbawiciela

Plac Zbawiciela

Plac Zbawiciela is a circular square in central Warsaw, Poland.The square was originally designed by 18th-century royal gardener Johann Christian Schuch as part of royal gardens....

(Savior Square), it would rain, and I would wake all in tears. This dream recurred often."
From 1946 to 1952 she studied at Warsaw Medical School, graduating on December 22, 1952. Her friend, surgeon Maciek Grochowicz, has said: "Several years after the terrible destruction of the Second World War, I met Joanna and I knew about her sufferings, life threatening situations, and work in the forced labor factory during the War, but wonderful, optimistic part of her character enabled her to become reborn, open to the future, and full of happiness and enjoyment of life. My recollections of our college times are not only related to exams and our successes. Everybody in that time who came into contact with Joanna remembered a beautiful, elegant, and compassionate person, even during the difficult situations. Thanks to her, it was easier to overcome obstacles and develop a circle of close friends. She was an exceptional doctor. Her professional success was based on ability to combine experience and intuition with a very personal relationship with each of her patients. She had the rare ability to encompass deep understanding of the patient’s problems with friendship and a natural closeness."

After graduation she worked in the Psychiatry Department at the Warsaw Medical University and subsequently established Student Psychiatry Clinic for students and academics in Warsaw. She was the director of this clinic for 38 years, working there for the rest of her life.

For many years she organized summer camps for students with nervous disorders, the first one took place in Duszniki in 1970. The therapy was based on, just beginning at that time in Poland, individual and group psychotherapy; one of the psychotherapists was Andrzej Samson

Andrzej Samson

Andrzej Samson was a Polish psychologist, psychotherapist, one of the pioneers of psychotherapy in Poland.- Life :...

. She introduced techniques innovative for that time in Poland - choreotherapy which was organized by Zofia Aleszko, yoga which was organized by Tadeusz Pasek. She established a sanatorium for students with nervous disorders in Warsaw, origins of which she describes as: "In May of 1963, I went to Clinique Dupre in Sceaux, close to Paris. After a month of visiting, I came back obsessed with an idea of founding a sanatorium for students with psychiatric illnesses. In the late spring of 1969, the first 6 students snuck into Gornoslaska Street (previously a tuberculosis sanatorium). Later, there were 12, 22, and finally, it achieved the magic number of 44."

Her grave is in the Ewangelicko-Augsburski Cemetery in Warsaw.