Kavka was of
Polish Jewish ancestry, born in Chicago, Illinois after his parents had emigrated from
Poland. He graduated from
Marshall High School in
Chicago's West Side and proceeded to obtain bachelor's and medical degrees from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kavka has written widely on Pound's psychological condition, and his writings are considered important in Pound scholarship. Kavka's internship was cut short when he was drafted as a physician into the
United States Army Medical Corps and became a lieutenant. After his army service, he completed his residency at the
Cook County Hospital. In 1966, he joined the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis as training and supervising analyst. According to
The Chicago Tribune obituary, he was "known for his original and often unconventional wisdom and for his capacity to work outside the classic psychoanalytic mold." Kavka was married to Georgine Rotman Kavka MD (1922–1996), a psychiatrist and professorial lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry,
University of Chicago. He is the father of the late
Gregory S. Kavka, a
political philosopher, and Audrey Kavka, MD, a
San Francisco Bay area psychoanalyst and member of
San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. ==Notes==