Martha J Kirkpatrick (December 1925 – August 2015) was an American psychoanalyst and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She also published extensively on the psychology of women in regard to relationships, divorce, and aging.
[3] Martha was born in Oxnard, California to parents Richard Terkel and Marion Brewer who divorced when she was in infancy.
[3] Kirkpatrick was initially refused admission to a psychoanalytic training program, at least in part because of her history of lesbian relationships.
She was also affiliated with the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.In the late 1970s, Kirkpatrick and some colleagues began pioneering work on the development and psychological adjustment of children raised by lesbian mothers, finding they fared no worse than children of heterosexual parents.