Madanes, Cloe

The family therapist and teacher Cloe Madanes (1940– ), one of the founders of the strategic approach to family therapy, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the oldest of three children. Her grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother was one of the first two women who were admitted to law school at the University of La Plata, but she dropped out after 2 years when she married and became pregnant.

Madanes decided by the age of 12 years that she would be a psychologist. To prepare for her future career, she read works by Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Stekel, Simone De Beauvoir, and Alfred Adler. She hid the books under her mattress because her father thought that ...