Clara M. Thompson's Professional Evolution and Legacy: An American Psychoanalyst (1933-1958)

This volume, beginning in 1933 after Sandor Ferenczi's death, explores Clara Thompson's life and professional career, drawing from interviews, personal correspondence, and scholarly essays. It provides insight into her development with influential luminaries, such as Harry Stack Sullivan, Erich Fromm, and others, and her pioneering essays that expanded the psychoanalytic perspective to embrace the dynamic interpersonal encounter between patient and analyst. Thompson's critical views on Freud's views on women and her advocacy for gender equality reflect her moral compass. The book clarifies Thompson's role in psychoanalytic history and reclaims her valuable contributions to both interpersonal psychoanalysis and the field of psychoanalysis.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 274 pages
Publication date: 07 October 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Beginning in 1933, after Sandor Ferenczi's death, this volume draws extensively from interviews, personal correspondence, and scholarly essays to explore the latter part of Clara Thompson's life and professional career. The reader is afforded an understanding of Thompson's development with the luminaries who influenced her, and who she, in turn, influenced, including Harry Stack Sullivan, Erich Fromm, and other cultural and social scientists. Building on her collaborative work with Ferenczi, and influenced by Sullivan, Thompson's pioneering essays expand the psychoanalytic perspective to embrace the dynamic interpersonal encounter between patient and analyst. Critical of Freud's views on women, Thompson also argues against the inequality of women and men in society, reflecting her own moral compass. This volume clarifies Thompson's role in psychoanalytic history, reclaiming her numerous and valuable contributions to both the interpersonal psychoanalytic tradition and to the field of psychoanalysis as we know it today.

Delores's artfully woven account of Thompson's life will prove essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychologists, and anyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis.

Weight: 480g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032257532