Carla Bauer Rentrop PhD.

Carla's video presentation

Dr. Carla Rentrop, an influential psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, died on November 6th, 2025. She was 74.

Board member, beloved training analyst, and supervisor at both the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and the Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS), she was deeply respected for her kindness, spirit and dedication, often taking on patients pro bono. She was a dear friend to many, and those close to her cherished her warmth and fabulously unique sense of humor.

Dr. Rentrop extended psychoanalytic work into the broader community when she founded the La Salle School program which she directed for 20 years. Under her supervision, beginning candidates from both Psychoanalytic Institutes administered psychodynamic group interventions to ethnically and socioeconomically minoritized adolescents. Many had traumatic backgrounds and increased risk of mental health complications. A randomized study performed by Dr. Rentrop, jointly with Dr. Geoff Goodman and Dr. Norka Malberg’s groups, demonstrated that two interventions reduced trauma symptoms and improved attachment security, changes with far reaching positive consequences known to persist throughout life. This major contribution was published in peer reviewed journals and presented internationally.

Dr. Rentrop was born to Ralph Glenn Bauer and Rosemary Christine Bauer on November 30th, 1950, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She graduated in 1973 with a double major in French and Applied Music from DePauw University in Indiana. She then moved to Freiburg in Germany to pursue her training as a flutist, culminating in the masterclass of Jean Pierre Rampal. Simultaneously, she acquired a PhD in Musicology from the University of Freiburg. For several years, she was the flutist of the Freiburg Baroque Soloists, with whom she toured Europe and the United States. She moved permanently back to the United States in 1980, completed a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Adelphi and subsequently her Psychoanalytic training at IPTAR.

Dr. Carla Rentrop’s background in the arts and philosophy enriched her sensitivity and creativity as an analyst. Her husband Dr. Peter Rentrop, her two children, Glenn Rentrop and Emily Kane, son-in-law, Oskar Kane, and her brother, Jeffrey Bauer, cherish their time with her and miss her deeply, and know that her work continues to brighten the many lives it touches.

Local arrangements by Gray Funeral Directors of Westfield, NJ. Please go to: www.grayfuneralhomes.com to offer condolences.