There have been no psychiatric studies of Dorothea Dix despite the importance to psychiatry of her reforms. This paper focuses on some psychodynamic themes in her life: parental identifications, childhood deprivation and reaction formation, religious conversion and mysticism, and depressive and hypomanic states. Her experiences are compared with those of other women reformers: St. Teresa, Florence Nightingale, and Jane Addams. The author concludes that successful careers in social service stem from positive identifications, although reaction formations are also prominent.Abstract Teaser