This paper introduces a new approach to consider the bending history in finite element inverse analysis of the cylindrical cup drawing. A modified membrane element is adopted to add the bending-unbending energy to the total plastic energy on the bending-unbending region predicted from the geometry of the final shape and tools. The algorithm suggested was applied to a cylindrical cup deep drawing process. The blank shape and the distribution of the thickness strain are compared with those obtained from incremental finite element analysis. The comparison demonstrates the algorithm proposed reduces the difference between the results from inverse analysis and those from incremental analysis when the bending history is considered.