Thompson, Clara (Mabel) (1893–1958)

US psychoanalyst. She published some original work on women and sexuality, her best-known book being Psychoanalysis: Evolution and Development (1950). In a famous schism in the American psychoanalytic community, in 1943 she helped establish the William Alanson White Institute (director, 1946–58), a training school. She continued her private practice and made her major contributions to psychoanalysis through her influence on students and colleagues.

Thompson was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She attended Pembroke, the women's college affiliated with Brown University (1912–16), and received her MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1920. She was influenced by Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, and other neo-Freudians, and taught at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute (1933–41).