Charlotte Buhler (nee Malachowsky) was born in Berlin Germany, on December 20, 1893, the older of two children From 1913 till 1918 she studied at universities in Freiburg/Breigau, in Berlin and in Munich. While in college, she met and married Dr. Karl Buhler, whose work reflected her interest in human thoughts on existence. By 1919, they had two children and Charlotte Buhler graduated as Doctor of philosophy and psychology, Summa cum laudae, at the University of Munich. From1920 to 1923 she was Privatdozent at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden.
Buhler moved to Austria in 1923, and taught at the School of Philosophy of the University of Vienna (which included psychology). She became associate professor in 1929, and was attendant and member of the faculty at the University of Vienna until 1938.
The Institute of Psychology in Vienna was established at the early 1920s within the framework of the Institute of Education of the City of Vienna, which was opened in 1923. Charlotte Buehler, with her husband, Karl Buehler, succeeded in establishing a far reaching network of scientific communications based on behaviorism. While in Vienna, Charlotte focused her research on the cognitive and personality development of children from infancy through adolescence. The goal of this research was to create a unified theory of psychology development of childhood. The Institute was directed by Charlotte Buehler as a modern social, scientific research institution.
In 1924 Buhler received a grant from the Laura Spellman-Rockefeller Memorial Fund for a study visit to the United States of America. She spent some time at the Teachers College of Columbia University, New York and at the Clinic of Child Development at Yale University, New Haven.
Students of the faculty of psychology, under the guidance of Charlotte Buehler, conducted individual research and follow-up of infants and children’s’ behavior. At the famous ‘Wednesdays colloquy’, doctoral students and collaborators continuously reported on their ongoing investigations, upon which the research plans were decided. The results of the research on children’s psychology were published by her in Kindheit und Jugend (“Childhood and Youth”) in 1928.
The Institute of Psychology was also involved in the welfare policies of ‘Red Vienna’ by observing the behavior of small children at a Reception Center for Children, who had been put into public care. From 1925 till 1938 Buhler was editor of the Wiener Arbeiten zur Paedagogischen Psychologie. She was also editor of Quellen und Studien zur Jugendkunde from 1928. Among her numerous published works are Soziologische und psychologische Studien ueber das erste Lebensjahr (1927), Kindheit und Jugend (1928), Kind und Familie (1937), The child and his family (1939), The course of Human Life and A Study of Goals in the Humanistic Perspective (1968).
In 1938, as the Nazis came to power, Buhler and her husband were both arrested for racial and political reasons. They fled first to Norway, where she was admitted as professor of psychology at the University of Oslo and at the Teachers Academy at Trondheim. In 1939 the Buehlers moved on to the UK. In London she became director of Parents Association and director of child guidance clinics. In 1940 they went to the USA to where she accepted the position of professor of psychology at St. Catherine College of St. Paul, Minnesota. Concurrently in 1942/3 she acted as guest professor at Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia. From 1943 until 1945 she was chief clinical psychologist at Minneapolis General Hospital, Minneapolis. Between 1945-1953 Buhler was chief clinical psychologist at Los Angeles County Hospital. Beginning in 1950 she concentrated on private practice of psychology in Beverly Hills, California. Concurrently, in the years 1950-1958 she was assistant clinical professor of psychology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles. From 1958 she was professor emeritus and visiting professor at Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Hunter College, New York, (C.U.N.Y.), Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, and numerous European universities. Charlotte was director of the child guidance clinic in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was co-editor of the journals, Humanistic Psychology, The Nervous Child, and British Journal of Educational Psychology. She was a member of the the American Psychologists Association and the American Association for Humanistic Psychology serving as president from 1965 till 1966.
Charlottes Buhler’s research and writings concentrated on study of the purpose of human existence. She stressed the concept of personal fulfillment and believed that humans could find personal fulfillment by fully using one’s potential, living constructively, setting goals and periodically assessing progress, and establishing a personal system of values.
In 1971 she returned to the Federal Republic of Germany, and settled in Stuttgart, where she worked in her private clinic, in order to spend the last years of her life with Rolf, her son. Charlotte Buhler received a Honorary Medal from the City of Vienna (1964). She died in 1974.