EARLY WOMEN PSYCHOANALYSTS
Welcome to a site dedicated to the remarkable women pioneers of psychoanalysis — born before World War I, most of them Jewish — whose contributions have been inadequately remembered, overlooked, or erased.
Despite their substantial impact on psychoanalytic thought, theory, and clinical practice, their work has too often been devalued, marginalized, or written out of the canon. Intersecting forms of gendered and racial power, institutional practice, and historical narrative determined whose stories counted — and whose did not.
This site brings together courses, publications, and events that honor and critically engage with their legacy. Join us in uncovering the stories of these women who shaped psychoanalysis and continue to inspire new generations. Together, let's restore their voices and contributions to the historical record — and carry them forward.
The Early Women Psychoanalysts project is created and maintained independently by Klara Naszkowska, with no outside funding. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Klara Naszkowska, Clara Happel, Judaism, and Psychoanalysis in America: Memory, History, and Interpretation. Routledge [2027].
Support the project here: https://gofund.me/ee92be077
Janka Kormos, The Life and Work of Judith S. Kestenberg: The Body on Trial. Routledge [2026]
The volume traces Kestenberg’s journey as a Polish-Jewish émigré in New York’s psychoanalytic circles, illuminating her psychodynamic theory of movement and method of movement analysis within postwar American mental health sciences. Kormos presents Kestenberg as a nonconformist, an innovative and eclectic thinker who gravitated towards the unknown and unspoken, highlighting the somatic precursors of psychic development and the kinaesthetic imprints of transgenerational trauma. Through Kestenberg’s work, the book explores questions of disciplinary positioning, transdisciplinarity and the evolving relationship between the arts and psychological practice throughout the 20th century. It also contributes to our understanding of postwar American psychological sciences, within which the study of bodily movement became increasingly central.
QR codes throughout the volume offer readers exclusive access to archival material compiled by Kormos. Previously unavailable to the public, these documents reveal intimate details of Kestenberg’s life and work and will be invaluable to graduate students and researchers in psychoanalytic studies, body-oriented psychotherapy, dance/movement therapy and the history of psychology. The Life and Work of Judith S. Kestenberg is a vital resource for scholars in the history of psychological sciences, psychoanalysts, arts and dance therapy practitioners, and trainees seeking insight into somatic approaches to trauma and the integration of embodied practices within therapeutic frameworks. (from the publisher)
