Profile
Agnes Büchele
Birth:
1949
Training Location(s):
Dr. Phil, University of Innsbruck (1979)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Frauen beraten Frauen [Women Counsel Women]
Center for Applied Psychology, Women and Gender Studies
Other Media:
Professional Websites
Zentrum für angewandte Psychologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Career Focus:
Women’s counselling, psychotherapy and supervision.
Biography
Agnes Büchele is a psychologist, psychotherapist and supervisor as well as the director of the Centre for Applied Psychology, Women's and Gender Studies in Cologne. She has worked as a lecturer at the universities of Vienna, Graz, Danube University Krems, Cologne and Kassel.
Büchele was born in 1949 and grew up in Hard, Austria. She was brought up by her parents together with four younger siblings, two brothers, and two sisters. For the first years, the family used to live in the house of her grandmother. As she noted: "Grandmother and great aunt and they led a kind of regiment, so it was clear, women rule!“ (Büchele, Interview with V. Luckgei 2019) Büchele recounted in an interview that even as a young girl she consciously perceived and questioned the image of women which was dominant in the small town where she was raised. She soon stood out from her peers and became the only girl in her class to go from junior high school to the Gymnasium and was one of the few who studied at the university afterwards.
Agnes Büchele moved to Innsbruck for her studies. She became involved in the second women's movement and a member of the association Arbeitskreis Emanzipation und Partnerschaft [Working Group Emancipation and Partnership], founded in 1973. As a student Büchele brought the topics discussed in the movement to the university.
In 1979 Büchele submitted a dissertation of almost 350 pages on "Aspects of the enforcement of gender-specific norms in psychological socialization theories in connection with the social discrimination of women". She analyzed gender hierarchies and the feminist revolt against them, specifically looking at psychoanalytical and psychological theories to see how they contributed to maintaining the status quo. After graduation, she worked on a research project on women in Vorarlberg, Austria, which focused on the stressors affecting women in rural areas. In the early 1980s Büchele moved to Vienna and soon became part of the team of the first feminist women's counseling center in Austria, Frauen beraten Frauen [Women Counselling Women] in 1983.
Between 1983 and 1995 she worked there as a psychosocial counselor. Büchele sees the establishment of the women’s counseling center in close connection with the establishment of the first women's shelters in the late 1970s. While the emergency shelters provide immediate protection for those affected, the counseling centers help women to cope experiences of violence apart from acute escalation. As a practitioner for many years, she was actively involved in establishing psychosocial counseling for victims of violence based on the values of the second women's movement. Through partiality, empowerment, and a relationship based on trust, Büchele supported her clients according to their needs.
From 1985 to 2010 she carried her experience to the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna. Büchele reported on her first course with a focus on "Violence against women and its psychosocial consequences" in an interview:
"Violence against women", that was of course a lively start with a difficult topic. But at the same time we were also convinced, as young psychologists and consultants from the field, that there is an area to be conquered and that this is something that absolutely has to belong to psychology. Whereby I did not think so much about psychology but rather had in mind: "What should psychologists, when they graduate, definitely know?" (Büchele, Interview with V. Luckgei, 2017).
From 2000 onwards, Büchele taught under the title of "applied gender research" on the construction of femininity and masculinity, as well as on aggressiveness, communication, and assertiveness. As a lecturer, Büchele was part of a critically oriented group of lecturers who, with the support of the students, brought alternative and critical perspectives to the Institute of Psychology of the University of Vienna. Together with her colleagues from the counseling center Christine Stromberger and Anna Vobruba, she formed a coordinated teaching cluster. The feminist teaching was supplemented in the 1990s by a guest professorship in women's studies. Since the so-called "women-specific" psychology could not gain a foothold in academia in the German-speaking countries, this phase in Vienna is of particular importance. Agnes Büchele can look back on 25 years of teaching and has thus represented feminist perspectives at the Institute for the longest time.
Between 1992 and 2002, she used her expertise to lead courses for psychologists and caregivers supporting victims of the Yugoslav war. Büchele exerted her political influence as co-organizer of the "Test the West" campaign of Minister for Women's Affairs Johanna Dohnal, which led to the enactment of Austria's Progressive Protection Against Violence Act in 1997.
Today Agnes Büchele lives in Cologne and runs the Centre for Applied Psychology, Women's and Gender Studies together with Sabine Scheffler. As an independent consultant, she also offers gender-sensitive consulting and supervision of teams and project groups, managers, and coaching.
By Vera Luckgei (2020)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By Agnes Büchele
Bendkowski, H., Büchele, A., Fischer, E., & König, I. (1993). „Test the West“. Geschlechterdemokratie und Gewalt. In J. Dohnal (Hrsg.), Test the West: Geschlechterdemokratie und Gewalt ; Kampagne der Bundesministerin für Frauenangelegenheiten 1992 - 1993 (S. 9–16).
Brandl, M., & Büchele, A. (1991). Der Offene Abend: ein steter Ort für Frauen. In D. Voigt (Hrsg.), Von Frau zu Frau: feministische Ansätze in Theorie und Praxis psychotherapeutischer Schulen (S. 57–66).
Büchele, A. (2010). Gewalt gegen Frauen: Viel erreicht! Wenig verändert? Von der Veröffentlichung der Gewalt gegen Frauen bis zum unterstützenden Beratungskonzept. In T. Ebermann, M. Breiter, & Verein Frauen Beraten Frauen (Hrsg.), In Anerkennung der Differenz: feministische Beratung und Psychotherapie (S. 75–86). Psychosozial-Verl.
Büchele, A. (2017). Lust an der Macht – Frauen in Organisationen. In H. Möller & T. Giernalczyk (Hrsg.), Organisationskulturen im Spielfilm: Von Banken, Klöstern und der Mafia: 29 Film- & Firmenanalysen
(S. 309–322). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Scheffler, S., & Büchele, A. (1999). War, Life Crisis and Trauma: Assessing the Impact of a Woman-Centered Training Program in Bosnia. Women & Therapy, 22(1), 121–138.
By and About Agnes Büchele
Büchele, A. (2019, May 29) Interviewed by V. Luckgei [Video Recording]
Büchele, A. (2017, January 4) Interviewed by V. Luckgei [Video Recording]
About Agnes Büchele
Luckgei, V., Ruck, N., & Slunecko, T. (2020). History of Feminist Psychology at the University of Vienna, 1984–2000. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.
Agnes Büchele
Birth:
1949
Training Location(s):
Dr. Phil, University of Innsbruck (1979)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Frauen beraten Frauen [Women Counsel Women]
Center for Applied Psychology, Women and Gender Studies
Other Media:
Professional Websites
Zentrum für angewandte Psychologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Career Focus:
Women’s counselling, psychotherapy and supervision.
Biography
Agnes Büchele is a psychologist, psychotherapist and supervisor as well as the director of the Centre for Applied Psychology, Women's and Gender Studies in Cologne. She has worked as a lecturer at the universities of Vienna, Graz, Danube University Krems, Cologne and Kassel.
Büchele was born in 1949 and grew up in Hard, Austria. She was brought up by her parents together with four younger siblings, two brothers, and two sisters. For the first years, the family used to live in the house of her grandmother. As she noted: "Grandmother and great aunt and they led a kind of regiment, so it was clear, women rule!“ (Büchele, Interview with V. Luckgei 2019) Büchele recounted in an interview that even as a young girl she consciously perceived and questioned the image of women which was dominant in the small town where she was raised. She soon stood out from her peers and became the only girl in her class to go from junior high school to the Gymnasium and was one of the few who studied at the university afterwards.
Agnes Büchele moved to Innsbruck for her studies. She became involved in the second women's movement and a member of the association Arbeitskreis Emanzipation und Partnerschaft [Working Group Emancipation and Partnership], founded in 1973. As a student Büchele brought the topics discussed in the movement to the university.
In 1979 Büchele submitted a dissertation of almost 350 pages on "Aspects of the enforcement of gender-specific norms in psychological socialization theories in connection with the social discrimination of women". She analyzed gender hierarchies and the feminist revolt against them, specifically looking at psychoanalytical and psychological theories to see how they contributed to maintaining the status quo. After graduation, she worked on a research project on women in Vorarlberg, Austria, which focused on the stressors affecting women in rural areas. In the early 1980s Büchele moved to Vienna and soon became part of the team of the first feminist women's counseling center in Austria, Frauen beraten Frauen [Women Counselling Women] in 1983.
Between 1983 and 1995 she worked there as a psychosocial counselor. Büchele sees the establishment of the women’s counseling center in close connection with the establishment of the first women's shelters in the late 1970s. While the emergency shelters provide immediate protection for those affected, the counseling centers help women to cope experiences of violence apart from acute escalation. As a practitioner for many years, she was actively involved in establishing psychosocial counseling for victims of violence based on the values of the second women's movement. Through partiality, empowerment, and a relationship based on trust, Büchele supported her clients according to their needs.
From 1985 to 2010 she carried her experience to the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna. Büchele reported on her first course with a focus on "Violence against women and its psychosocial consequences" in an interview:
"Violence against women", that was of course a lively start with a difficult topic. But at the same time we were also convinced, as young psychologists and consultants from the field, that there is an area to be conquered and that this is something that absolutely has to belong to psychology. Whereby I did not think so much about psychology but rather had in mind: "What should psychologists, when they graduate, definitely know?" (Büchele, Interview with V. Luckgei, 2017).
From 2000 onwards, Büchele taught under the title of "applied gender research" on the construction of femininity and masculinity, as well as on aggressiveness, communication, and assertiveness. As a lecturer, Büchele was part of a critically oriented group of lecturers who, with the support of the students, brought alternative and critical perspectives to the Institute of Psychology of the University of Vienna. Together with her colleagues from the counseling center Christine Stromberger and Anna Vobruba, she formed a coordinated teaching cluster. The feminist teaching was supplemented in the 1990s by a guest professorship in women's studies. Since the so-called "women-specific" psychology could not gain a foothold in academia in the German-speaking countries, this phase in Vienna is of particular importance. Agnes Büchele can look back on 25 years of teaching and has thus represented feminist perspectives at the Institute for the longest time.
Between 1992 and 2002, she used her expertise to lead courses for psychologists and caregivers supporting victims of the Yugoslav war. Büchele exerted her political influence as co-organizer of the "Test the West" campaign of Minister for Women's Affairs Johanna Dohnal, which led to the enactment of Austria's Progressive Protection Against Violence Act in 1997.
Today Agnes Büchele lives in Cologne and runs the Centre for Applied Psychology, Women's and Gender Studies together with Sabine Scheffler. As an independent consultant, she also offers gender-sensitive consulting and supervision of teams and project groups, managers, and coaching.
By Vera Luckgei (2020)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By Agnes Büchele
Bendkowski, H., Büchele, A., Fischer, E., & König, I. (1993). „Test the West“. Geschlechterdemokratie und Gewalt. In J. Dohnal (Hrsg.), Test the West: Geschlechterdemokratie und Gewalt ; Kampagne der Bundesministerin für Frauenangelegenheiten 1992 - 1993 (S. 9–16).
Brandl, M., & Büchele, A. (1991). Der Offene Abend: ein steter Ort für Frauen. In D. Voigt (Hrsg.), Von Frau zu Frau: feministische Ansätze in Theorie und Praxis psychotherapeutischer Schulen (S. 57–66).
Büchele, A. (2010). Gewalt gegen Frauen: Viel erreicht! Wenig verändert? Von der Veröffentlichung der Gewalt gegen Frauen bis zum unterstützenden Beratungskonzept. In T. Ebermann, M. Breiter, & Verein Frauen Beraten Frauen (Hrsg.), In Anerkennung der Differenz: feministische Beratung und Psychotherapie (S. 75–86). Psychosozial-Verl.
Büchele, A. (2017). Lust an der Macht – Frauen in Organisationen. In H. Möller & T. Giernalczyk (Hrsg.), Organisationskulturen im Spielfilm: Von Banken, Klöstern und der Mafia: 29 Film- & Firmenanalysen (S. 309–322). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Scheffler, S., & Büchele, A. (1999). War, Life Crisis and Trauma: Assessing the Impact of a Woman-Centered Training Program in Bosnia. Women & Therapy, 22(1), 121–138.
By and About Agnes Büchele
Büchele, A. (2019, May 29) Interviewed by V. Luckgei [Video Recording]
Büchele, A. (2017, January 4) Interviewed by V. Luckgei [Video Recording]
About Agnes Büchele
Luckgei, V., Ruck, N., & Slunecko, T. (2020). History of Feminist Psychology at the University of Vienna, 1984–2000. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.