Early Women Psychoanalysts: History, Biography, and Contemporary Relevance

The book explores the lives and contributions of female psychoanalysts, highlighting their roles as analysts, political activists, and scholars. It discusses known and lesser-known analysts, their impact on the early Freudian movement, and their experiences of migration and exile. The book emphasizes the ongoing significance of these women for psychoanalytic theory and practice, addressing issues of gender discrimination, immigration laws, and antisemitism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 346 pages
Publication date: 01 March 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Each life story is unique, yet each also intertwines with other stories, sharing recurring themes linked to issues of gender, Jewishness, women's education, politics, and migration. The book's first section discusses relatively known analysts such as Sabina Spielrein, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and Beata Rank, remembered largely as someone's wife, lover, or muse; and the second part sheds light on women such as Margarethe Hilferding, Tatiana Rosenthal, and Erzsébet Farkas, who took strong political stances. In the third section, the biographies of lesser-known analysts like Ludwika Karpińska-Woyczyńska, Nic Waal, Barbara Low, and Vilma Kovács are discussed in the context of their importance for the early Freudian movement; and in the final section, the lives of Eugenia Sokolnicka, Sophie Morgenstern, Alberta Szalita, and Olga Wermer are examined in relation to migration and exile, trauma, loss, and memory.

With a clear focus upon the continued importance of these women for psychoanalytic theory and practice, as well as discussion that engages with pertinent issues such as gendered discrimination, inhumane immigration laws, and antisemitism, this book is an important reading for students, scholars, and practitioners of psychoanalysis, as well as those involved in gender and women's studies, and Jewish and Holocaust studies.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032595351