EARLY WOMEN PSYCHOANALYSTS

The course will focus on Sabina Spielrein, Margarethe Hilferding, Ludwika Karpińska-Woyczyńska, Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Lou Andreas Salomé, Judith Kestenberg, Vilma Kovacs, Clara Happel, Helene Deutsch, Barbara Low, Eugenia Sokolnicka, Alberta Szalita, among other women pioneers of psychoanalysis.

Uncover the untold stories of early women psychoanalysts in this eye-opening doctoral-level online course with Drs. Naszkowska and Tomčić.

Step into the untold history of extraordinary women who helped shape the foundations of psychoanalysis. Drawing from her anthology Early Women Psychoanalysts: History, Biography, and Contemporary Relevance, Klara Naszkowska will first resurrect biographies of remarkable pioneers who worked across Europe before World War II, revealing how their groundbreaking contributions to the nascent field of psychoanalysis were systematically erased from the historical record. She will weave together intimate biographical portraits with the turbulent socio-political landscape of early 20th-century Europe. Each biography will unfold against the backdrop of women’s expanding educational opportunities, rising autocracies, forced migrations, and the complex dynamics of Jewish identity in a changing world. You’ll discover how these trailblazing women navigated the intersections of gender, religion, politics, and professional ambition during one of history’s most transformative periods.

In the second part of each meeting, Ana Tomčić will lead an in-depth reading group exploration of these women’s contributions to psychoanalysis through exploration of their published theoretical and clinical work. In this way, we will get to know these women more deeply, to learn what was on their minds and what was important to them, as well as to further appreciate their remarkable contributions to the development of psychoanalysis. While their contributions are wide-ranging, we will focus on child analysis, play therapy, linguistics, theories of femininity, female sexuality, motherhood, mother-infant relationships, Holocaust studies, technique, and training.