Obituary: Henriette R. Klein (1901-1996)

Henriette R. Klein, one of the leaders of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and of the psychoanalytic profession in New York City, died at her Carnegie Hill Manhattan brownstone on 11 May, 1996 at the age of 94. Born in October 1901, her career exemplified the best of American psychiatry and psychoanalysis. She was a pioneer in the ascendancy of women to leadership roles in those professions, and an important model for the many people who followed her.

Klein was born in Evanston, Illinois and received her B.A. from the University of Chicago and her M.D. from the University of Maryland. She trained in psychiatry and child psychiatry at Columbia's New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins, and in psychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, graduating in 1940. She served on the faculties of the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York, Emery University and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was a central figure at the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Center from 1949 until her death. She became the first woman president of the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, and of the New York District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association, as well as the first woman trustee of the American Psychiatric Association from New York.

Klein made important scientific contributions to the study of childhood schizophrenia, the psychology of pregnancy and the psychodynamics of paranoia. She conducted one of the first systematic studies of psychoanalytic candidates, and published a monograph describing her findings. Her colleagues recognised her character and her special interest in professional ethics, by selecting her to chair the ethics committees of both psychiatric and psychoanalytic organisations. She was sought out as a consultant, a supervisor and a teacher, and was beloved by her many students as a mentor and a friend. Generations of ana