Mary Chadwick

Mary Chadwick (died 1943) was a British nurse and psychoanalyst, characterised by Edward Glover as "the founder of child-analysis in Britain". A friend of the poet H.D., she analysed their work in 1931.

Life Chadwick was introduced to psychotherapy by the Medico-Psychological Clinic, receiving her first analysis there from Julia Turner. She delivered a paper on child analysis to the inaugural British Psychoanalytic Society meeting in 1919. In 1920 she accompanied James Strachey, Edward Glover and Ella Freeman Sharpe to Berlin, where she underwent analysis with Hanns Sachs. She started seeing children in therapy in 1922, and became an Associate Member of the BPAS in 1923.

In the mid-1920s Chadwick wrote a pair of essays on the sexual motivations underlying curiosity, characterising the male will to know as envious of the female ability to give birth. Her argument here influenced Melanie Klein, who later also reviewed Chadwick's book on menstruation.

In 1930 Chadwick befriended the poet H.D., the novelist Bryher and the filmmaker Kenneth Macpherson. and Chadwick wrote for their magazine, Close Up, in 1931. Bryher paid for both Kenneth Macpherson and H.D. to go into analysis with Chadwick.

Chadwick died suddenly in May 1943.

Works 'A Case of Kleptomania in a Girl of Ten Years', International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, Vol. 6 (1925), pp. 300–312 'Über die Wurzel der Wissbegierde' [On the origin of curiosity], Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Vol. 11 (1925), pp. 54–68. 'Notes upon the Acquisition of Knowledge', Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. 13 (1926), pp. 257–80. 'Ein Experiment in einem Kindergarten', Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Pädagogik, Vol. 1, No. 11-12 (1927), pp. 350–357. 'Die Gott-Phantasie bei Kindern', Imago, Vol. 13 (1927), pp. 383–394. Difficulties in child development. London: G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd, 1928. 'Die Unterscheidung zwischen Ton und Sprache in der frühen Kindheit', Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Pädagogik, Vol. 2 (1928), pp. 369–83. 'Notes upon the Fear of Death', International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, Vol. 10 (1929), pp. 321–34. 'Die Erziehung der Erzieher' [The education of the educators], Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Pädagogik, Vol. 4 (1930), pp. 356–370. Nursing Psychological Patients. London, 1931. 'Menstruationsangst', Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Pädagogik, Vol. 5 (1931), pp. 184–189. 'My First Sound Film', Close Up, Vol. 8. No. 1, 1931. The Psychological Effects of Menstruation. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co., 1932. Adolescent Girlhood. London: G. Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1932. Women's Periodicity. London, 1933. Chapters about Childhood. The Psychology of Children from 5–10 Years. London, 1939. The Toddler in the Home. London, 1940.