He was educated in a liberal way and the atmosphere in his parents house was religious free. While studying he was confronted with the anti-Semitic atmosphere at the University of Vienna, and joined the Zionist student organization Kadimah. He played an important role in the organization and advocated the minority rights. He became a friend of Herzl.
Felix Deutsch dealt with emotional factors in physical illness, which brought him to establish a clinic for “organ-neuroses” (1919) in Vienna. From 1921 Deutsch lectured in medicine at the University of Vienna. The subjects of his research connected him with Freud, and they established the first home of the Psychoanalytic Clinic in Vienna (1922). Deutsch published many articles on the interaction of emotional and physical processes, and was one of the pioneers of psycosomatic medicine.
Deutsch emigrated to Boston (1935), where he became research fellow in psychiatry at Harvard University. During the years he published many articles on psychoanalitical topics. He was president of the Boston Psycoanalytic Institute (1951-1954). In his work he invented many scientific terms and enriched the psychological language. Before his death he planned to conduct a project on the art of children that immigrated to Israel from all corners of the world. Felix Deutsch was married to Helene Deutsch who was also a psychiatrist.