Therese Benedek, a Hungarian psychoanalyst, was born in Budapest on November 8, 1892, and died in Chicago on October 27, 1977. She received her medical diploma from the University of Budapest in 1915. She underwent five months of analysis with Sándor Ferenczi, then in 1918 settled, along with her husband Tibor, in Leipzig. From 1920-1923 she completed her analytic training at the newly established Berlin Institute, where she attended seminars and conducted analyses under the supervision of Karl Abraham and Max Eitingon. A partisan of "developmental psychoanalysis," Benedek followed Ferenczi's recommendation for flexibility during therapy.

In 1933 she emigrated with her husband and their two children to the United States. In 1936 Franz Alexander offered her an administrative position at the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis, where he was the director. Here she participated actively in research on psychosomatic medicine for...