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The intent of this article is to trace the beginning of the psychoanalytic career of Dr. Therese F. Benedek, relying mainly on correspondence and other private documentation. After her death two envelopes were found in an accordion file in her desk which were postmarked August 27, 1921, and June 18, 1923, and were addressed to Dr. Benedek in the handwriting of Dr. Karl Abraham (1877-1925).1 They contained two short letters and four postcards from him and the draft of a largely autobiographical letter to him. The file also contained a letter from Dr. Max Eitingon (1881-1943) pertaining to her election to membership in the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society. The documents reproduced in this article are translated from the German by the present author and briefly annotated.
Therese F. Benedek was born on November 8, 1892, in Eger, Hungary, the third of four children of Ignatz and Charlotte (Link) Friedmann. Her father was a businessman, and she was the first member of her family to seek a medical or scientific career. The family moved to Budapest when she was six years old, and she obtained all of her education there. She graduated from the University of Budapest on October 28, 1916, although her medical diploma is dated January 13, 1917. She married Tibor Benedek (1892-1974) on April 19, 1919, three weeks before the same university