Margaret Schönberger Mahler (May 10, 1897 in Ödenburg, Austria-Hungary; October 2, 1985 in New York) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist,[1] psychoanalyst, and pediatrician.
After completing the Höhere Mädchenschule, she attended Vaci Utcai Gimnazium in Budapest, even though it was unusual at the time for a woman to continue formal education.
[3] She met the influential Hungarian psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi, became fascinated by the concept of the unconscious, and was encouraged to read Sigmund Freud.
In spring 1920 she transferred to the university of Jena and it was there that she began to realize how important play and love were for infants in order for them to grow up mentally and physically healthy.
After receiving a New York medical license, Margaret Mahler set up private practice in a basement and began to rebuild her clientele.
[4] Mahler initiated a more constructive exploration of severe disturbances in childhood and emphasized the importance of the environment on the child.
Separation-individuation can be viewed as the psychological birth of an infant, which occurs over a period of time when the child separates from the mother and begins to individuate.
[4] Her most important work is The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation, written in 1975 with Fred Pine and Anni Bergman.