Review of Clara M. Thompson’s early years and professional awakening: An American psychoanalyst (1893–1933) and Clara M. Thompson’s professional evolution and legacy: An American psychoanalyst (1933–1958).

Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol 41(1), Jan 2024, 53-59; doi:10.1037/pap0000491Reviews the books, Clara M. Thompson's Early Years and Professional Awakening: An American Psychoanalyst (1893–1933) by Ann D'Ercole (2023) and Clara M. Thompson's Professional Evolution and Legacy: An American Psychoanalyst (1933–1958) by Ann D'Ercole (2023). Dr. Ann D’Ercole has done a great service to Interpersonal–Relational psychoanalysis and to the William Alanson White Institute in writing this exhaustive two-volume biography of Clara Mabel Thompson, MD. D’Ercole resoundingly establishes Thompson’s place in the history of American psychoanalysis and brings her alive for several generations of clinicians, especially beneficial as her scholarly work is difficult to find online or in print. Richly detailed and meticulously researched in the oral history tradition, D’Ercole used interviews, archives, Thompson’s academic articles, and personal correspondence to prepare this long overdue biography/analysis of Thompson’s scholarly contributions to psychoanalysis. The first volume, Clara M. Thompson’s Early Years and Professional Awakening: An American Psychoanalyst (1893– 1933), begins with Thompson’s 1952 interview with Kurt Eissler for the Freud Archives (Eissler, 1952). In the interview, Thompson speaks primarily about her analysis and relationship with Ferenczi, as well as her relationships with other American patients in treatment with him in Budapest at the same time. Ab...
Source: Psychoanalytic Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research