Women Pioneers of Psychoanalysis
Instructor
Dr. Klara Naszkowska
Dates
Six consecutive Fridays,
September 5 through October 10, 2025
10-11:30am PT
Location
Online Course via Zoom
CEs
9 CEs offered for qualifying professionals.
Course fee
$275 for licensed therapists
$195 for pre-licensed and students
Step into the untold stories of extraordinary women who helped shape the foundations of psychoanalysis. This fascinating course resurrects the forgotten narratives of five remarkable female pioneers who worked across Europe before World War II, revealing how their groundbreaking contributions were systematically erased from the historical record.
Drawing from the anthology Early Women Psychoanalysts: History, Biography, and Contemporary Relevance, this course weaves together intimate biographical portraits with the turbulent socio-political landscape of early 20th-century Europe. 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.
The course will begin with an exploration of these pioneers as a collective force before diving deep into five compelling individual stories: Sabina Spielrein, Margarethe Hilferding, Ludwika Karpińska-Woyczyńska, Eugenia Sokolnicka, and Judith Kestenberg. Each biography unfolds against the backdrop of women's expanding educational opportunities, rising autocracies, forced migrations, and the complex dynamics of Jewish identity in a changing world.
*This course will emphasize historical and sociopolitical themes rather than psychoanalytic ideas and theory.
Primary text:
Naszkowska, K. (Ed.) (2024.) Early women psychoanalysts: History, biography, and contemporary relevance. Routledge.
Learning Objectives
Describe the sociopolitical, cultural and economic circumstances relevant to the entry of women into the psychoanalytic field in pre-WWI and interwar Europe.
Identify vital women pioneers active in the psychoanalytic movement in Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, United Kingdom.
Analyze the sociopolitical, cultural, economic developments that largely shaped their personal and professional biographies.
Discuss the intersecting oppressive systems of gender, ethnicity, and citizenship, as well as the unique combination of marginalization of privilege, as they pertain to the experiences of the first Jewish women psychoanalysts.
Describe personal and professional biographies of several of these pioneers, including Sabina Spielrein, Margarethe Hilferding, Ludwika Karpińska-Woyczyńska, Eugenia Sokolnicka, and Judith Kestenberg.
Explain the complex reasons behind the virtual disappearance of women pioneers of psychoanalysis from the mainstream historical narrative.
Instructor Credentials
Klara Naszkowska is a cultural historian of women; research scholar, writer, and adjunct professor in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at Montclair State University, NJ. Her work critically investigates the lives of Jewish women pioneers of psychoanalysis who fled Nazi persecution in Europe for the US. She engages with archival materials and conduct oral history interviews to reconstruct their largely forgotten biographies. Her most recent publications include the edited anthology Early Women Psychoanalysts: History, Biography, and Contemporary Relevance (Routledge, 2024). Her work has been recognized with the Fulbright Fellowship, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library Grant, and the Leo Baeck Institute’s Gerald Westheimer Career Development Fellowship.
For more information or questions contact us at thealamoprograms@gmail.com
Refund policy: Participants seeking a refund can email us at thealamoprograms@gmail.com at least 15 days before the first meeting. Refunds requested 15 days or earlier will receive 100% refund. 14-7 days prior, participants are eligible for a 50% refund. No refund will be provided 6 days prior or less.
Course meets the qualifications for 9 hours of continuing education credit for PhD, LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the American Psychological Association and the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
Please note: Attendance at all class meetings is required for continuing education credits.
Course certificates awarded at the end of the course upon receipt of completed evaluation form.
The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training is a dba of Michelle Harwell Therapy. Michelle Harwell Therapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and many licensed clinicians. Michelle Harwell Therapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
No known conflict of interest or commercial support for Michelle Harwell Therapy, The Alamo Psychotherapy and Training, or the instructor.
To request accommodations for special needs, obtain the grievance policy, report a grievance, request a refund, request more information about the course, or if you have general questions, please email us at thealamoprograms@gmail.com