ABSTRACT
Analysts have often referred to S. Freud's standard of 'To Work, To Love', as an indication of the success of an analysis. Severn was able to resume her clinical practice, after the termination of the analysis, but this time she considered herself a psychoanalyst, no longer a metaphysician or psychic healer. Although Severn's analysis with Ferenczi ended on a negative note, and has been criticized by some as unsuccessful, the data from her 26-year recovery period, 1933-1959, indicates a more positive picture. Severn's career began being a clinician with a metaphysical perspective, then with a psychological perspective, and finally with a psychoanalytic perspective. An interesting article was among Severn's personal library of books, newspaper clippings, and documents. It was published in 1935, two years after Severn ended her analysis with Ferenczi. Saving the article may have indicated a continued thinking through of her own psychological treatment. Severn's statement on recovery seems to match Michael Balint's assessment of the Ferenczi/Severn analysis.
