Simone Campbell Scott’s approach to psychoanalysis was much like her approach to art and writing.

She rarely began a creative project thinking about what she wanted to say or share. Instead, she started with a rough idea and let the work guide her. She tried to channel “what wanted to be drawn, what wanted to be written,” close friend Doris Kamenetz said. In the therapist’s chair, Campbell Scott pushed her clients to speak with their heart instead of their head — to say what wants to be said.

Her natural intuition, mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism and a refusal to suffer fools, coaxed truth and reflection out of her clients. Her compassionate demeanor and ability to meet people where they were allowed her to offer insights that resonated and helped them see themselves in a new light, loved ones said.

“She could engage with people from all different quadrants of what it means to be human in a way that was deeply respectful and compassionate and curious,” said Dr. Sarah Braun, a former classmate, colleague and friend. “Her capacity to do that not only enriched people’s lives, but it allowed some people to actually thrive where they might have not even survived.”

Campbell Scott treated clients from her home in Bolton Hill for roughly two decades. At the end of her life, she made friends with the doctors and nurses at Johns Hopkins Bayview, telling them how much they’d benefit from a staff psychoanalyst.

Campbell Scott, also a caring mother and grandmother and a former art history professor, died May 16 of sepsis while hospitalized for a previous injury. She was 78.

She was born Nov. 23, 1946, the oldest of three daughters of Frank and Paule Wilson in Asheville, North Carolina. Her mother was a French teacher, and her father worked in insurance, a job that required his family to frequently relocate.

They lived in Massachusetts when Campbell Scott graduated from high school and decided to attend Goucher College. While at Goucher, she met a young man at Johns Hopkins and became pregnant. They quickly got married — and quickly divorced. At age 20, Campbell Scott became a single mother to a daughter, Daniele.

She returned to her family, which then relocated to Knoxville, and she finished college at the University of Tennessee, receiving a bachelor’s degree in French and art history. She then went to Vanderbilt University and earned a master’s degree in art history in 1973. After graduating, she looked for a job to support herself and her daughter — and the call came from the school now known as the University of North Alabama.

The two moved to Florence, a tiny town near the borders of Mississippi and Tennessee. Campbell Scott and her daughter “grew up together, and we figured it out as we went along,” Daniele Campbell said. “We were just going through our adventures together.”

The two spent a decade in Alabama, traveling to nearby lakes and eating hearty Southern food. Every Tuesday, they picked up the Sunday edition of The New York Times from a local bookstore that received copies two days late. Campbell Scott exposed her daughter to arts and culture, signing her up for ballet classes and taking her to theater productions and museums.

Campbell Scott was never really religious, but pretty much everyone else in Alabama was, so she and Daniele joined St. Bart’s Episcopal Church. She was a lifelong Democrat and wanted to join a progressive congregation, her daughter said. She also continued her education, participating in seminars and traveling to India one summer with a group of Fulbright scholars.

While in Alabama, Campbell Scott met a lawyer working at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and they married. The family moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where her husband’s family lived. Daniele was in the 10th grade and finished high school there, and then went to college in New York.

The couple divorced about three or four years after marrying, and Campbell Scott moved back to Baltimore to start a second master’s degree in social work. Her teaching opportunities were limited because she didn’t have a doctorate, so she changed careers. She’d always been interested in Jungian psychology, the very analytical and reflective approach to therapy inspired by psychologist Carl Jung.

Baltimore brought new career fulfillment and a new partner into Campbell Scott’s life. She met Tom Scott, then the graduate dean of painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and fell head over heels. The third time was the charm, her daughter joked, and she and Scott were inseparable until his death in 2012.

With a second master’s degree, Campbell Scott worked therapy jobs across Baltimore before enrolling at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York. There, she met Braun, who shared her belief that a full and honest education must come with a bit of skepticism and critical thinking. She later translated this skill to her client work, Braun said.

“She was both very warm and compassionate, and also, at times, could be very clear and direct about where they were avoiding what they needed to really turn towards and grapple with in very direct ways,” Braun said.

After finishing her training, Campbell Scott joined several communities of Jungian analysts across the East Coast and started her own practice from her Baltimore home. Her house, filled with art, also contained a large sandbox, which she used for therapy.

After her husband’s death, Campbell Scott took poetry classes and undertook a massive project to archive her late husband’s work. She drew sketches of friends and gave them as gifts. And she showed great interest in the lives of her grandchildren, Casey and Charlotte, and other family.

She showed endless curiosity, up until she died. While hospitalized, she asked friend Norma Kriger to share a short story she had mentioned, “So Late in the Day” by Claire Keegan.

“She was always exploring and open to learning new things,” Kriger said. “[She was] just somebody who was brave, exploring, independent-minded. Definitely had a stubborn streak — but, I think, lived the way she wanted to live.”

The Banner publishes news stories about people who have recently died in Maryland. If your loved one has passed and you would like to inquire about an obituary, please contact obituary@thebaltimorebanner.com. If you are interested in placing a paid death notice, please contact groupsales@thebaltimorebanner.com or visit this website.