Inaugural lecture by Prof Dr Susanne Hommel
On the occasion of her appointment as Professor of Counselling and Intervention in Work with Children, Adolescents and Families at the Department of Social and Educational Sciences, Prof. Susanne Dorothea Hommel will give her inaugural lecture on the 1st of December, 2025 entitled "Die Welt der Frühen Beziehung und die Frühe Beziehung in einer Welt existenzieller Bedrohungen".
"There is no such thing as a baby" D.W. Winnicott, 1960
The British paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott wrote in 1960: "There's no such thing as a baby. There is a baby and someone." And added: "Meaning of course that whenever one finds an infant one finds maternal care and without maternal care there would be no infant."
In her inaugural lecture, Professor Susanne Hommel provides an overview of psychoanalytic theory on early relationships, using key findings from infant and attachment research to demonstrate that, from a psycho-biological perspective, relationships are not just sentimental, but existentially necessary.
The early relationship between a baby and its parents regulates the child's developing nervous system, influences brain development and forms the basis of the development of the self. It also represents the foundation of identity and resilience. Feeling connected to others protects us from isolation, loss, abandonment, manipulation, and the loss of our ability to think.
What effect do the current existential threats posed by the pandemic, populism, climate catastrophe and war have on the early development and relationships of babies and toddlers with their parents? What can we do in our educational, psychological and psychotherapeutic professions to promote relatedness and a sense of belonging as the basis for development, play, love, learning and social interaction, and to ensure socio-political stability?
About the person
Prof. Dipl. Psych. Susanne Hommel, PhD. began her work with babies, children and families in 1995 as a physiotherapist at the Centre for Child Development in Hamburg and completed her degree in psychology with a focus on developmental psychology, educational and clinical psychology at the University of Hamburg in 2005.
From 2005 to 2008, she was a research assistant in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychosomatics, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf and Altona Children's Hospital in Hamburg and began her further training as a depth psychology-based child and adolescent psychotherapist in 2006.
Her research on early childhood regulation disorders, peripartum mental disorders and the early relationship led to research stays in Munich at the Schreibaby-Ambulanz of the Kinderzentrum München, Washington DC at the Children's National Medical Centre and London at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the Tavistock Clinic and the Anna Freud Centre (AFC).
Her further training in "Psychoanalytic Parent-Infant Psychotherapy" at the AFC led to a PhD at University College London, UCL in co-operation with the "Parent-Infant Project" at the AFC from 2009. The successful acquisition of research funding and her membership of the Research Programme of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) were the start of collaborations with the Yale Child Study Centre, La Sapienza in Rome, the Center for Early Intervention and Family Studies (CIF) in Copenhagen and the Department of Social Policy and Intervention in Oxford, which she incorporates into her research activities at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
Back from London, she set up the "SchreibabySprechstunde Hamburg" in cooperation with "wellcome gGmbH" for the health authority of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 2018 and founded the "ElternHaus" as an umbrella for the qualification as an early help specialist, research and supervision funded by the Bundesstiftung Frühe Hilfen.
Susanne Hommel works as an analytical child and adolescent psychotherapist in her own practice in Hamburg and is a lecturer and supervisor for the analytical infant, toddler and parent psychotherapy and child and adolescent psychotherapy training programmes in Hamburg, Berlin and London. She was a member of the ethics committee of the Hamburg Chamber of Psychotherapists and is active as an expert in early relationships and early intervention in national and international working groups, including the recently published AWMF guideline "Mental disorders in infants, toddlers and pre-school age", the "Family Health" department of the DGPPN, the revision of the training and further education standards for "Early Intervention" of the GAIMH & WAIMH and "Psychoanalytic Intervention for Parents and Infants" of the IPA.
As a professor in the Department of Social and Educational Sciences at the FHP, she currently teaches primarily in the Childhood Education and Early Childhood Education degree programmes, offers more and more teaching in English and will accompany qualification work from BA to PhD level. From the summer semester of 2026, she will work with Prof Tanja Salem to set up and manage the Teaching & Research Nursery designed by Prof Annette Dreier and colleagues.
The course will also be offered in hybrid form.
Please use the Zoom link to the inaugural lectureto participate online.
