Lilly Hajdu

Lili Hajdú Gimesné (, 1 November 1891 – 27 May 1960) was a Hungarian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She was president of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Association and was director of the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Biography Lili Hajdú Gimesné was born on 1 November 1891 in Miskolc, Hungary, to an assimilated Jewish family. Her parents were merchant Max Hochmann, who changed his name to Mihály Hajdú, and Terézia Kellner. Gimesné had four siblings.

From 1909, Gimesné studied medicine at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. She was one of the first women graduates and called herself a "girl of tomorrow." After graduating, she worked at Moravcsik Psychiatric Hospital. After the war, she joined the ruling Hungarian Communist Party.

Gimesné was a member of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Association [ fr] from 1933 and succeeded Imre Hermann as president of the Association from 1947 until its forced dissolution in 1949 as part of a political campaign to discredit psychoanalysis. While president, she campaigned against the use of straitjackets and shock therapy. She directed the Institute for three years until her retirement in 1957.

In 1956, Gimesné's daughter Judit emigrated to Switzerland. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Gimesné's son Miklós Gimes, a journalist and revolutionary, was executed for treason in 1958, along with Imre Nagy and Pál Maléter.

After her passport request was refused for the third time, Gimesné died by suicide on 27 May 1960 in Budapest, Hungary.