Ella Freeman Sharpe - A Review Of Her Contribution

Ella Sharpe (1875-1947) came to psychoanalysis from a background in literature, particularly Shakespeare, and teacher training. She became a student of psychoanalysis at the Medico-Psychological Clinic in London in 1917 and three years later went to Berlin for analysis with Hans Sachs, a non-medical analyst who shared her interest in literature. (He had also written on symbolism with Otto Rank and had been well regarded in Ernest Jones' seminar paper The Theory of Symbolism).[1] Ella Sharpe would later say that her motivation from the beginning of her involvement in the field of psychoanalysis was not to cure but to understand.…