Remembrance of Things Past: Heed’s Program in Psychoanalysis, Twenty-one Years Ago

Shirley B. Love, Ph.D.

(On the Occasion of Receiving the First Alumni Award from the 
Hattie R. Rosenthal College of Psychoanalysis of Heed University, 
New York, June 2001)

About my memories, well, after all, when you get to my age it’s Alzheimer’s time. . . .  Now, it was twenty-one years ago that I got my doctorate, and I’m trying to remember what it was like, twenty-one years ago.  Perhaps some of you in the audience could help me out?  What I do remember is that Dr. Harold Stern was the area coordinator and that he initiated the whole Heed program.  In addition, he also started the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis simultaneously. I’m sorry he is not here, because I would like to thank him directly.  He was a remarkable, unusual, and a multifaceted individual.  He had tremendous organizational skills, so that when he developed the program, it was really developed, and had high standards.  Now, what I have with me here … is my transcript—proof that I graduated!  However, on this transcript, which lists the courses that I took, there are some initials of the instructors that I do not remember, so if some of you who were there can help me: Who was P. M.?  Phyllis Meadow?  Well, of course!  Now the next one— William Kirman was W. K., but who was S. B., teaching Psychoanalytic Case Seminar I?  Selwyn Brody!  Psychoanalytic Seminars, taught by E. L.—Evelyn Liegner!  L. L.—Leonard Leigner! S. L.—Sidney Love!   There, but I’m glad I’ve cleared up those mystery initials.

These were the forerunners of Heed, but the forerunners actually began with Sigmund Freud.  He wrote The Question of Lay Analysis.  How he came to The Question of Lay Analysis has to do with Theodore Reik, who was his analysand and student.  Reik had come to Freud to study to become an analyst, as well as to be analyzed.  Now, I would like to credit a source of some of the information that I am using here—Deborah Margolis—who recently passed away, following the demise of her husband, Benjamin Margolis.  She published a wonderful article in 1979, in the journal Modern Psychoanalysis, entitled “Who Shall Be Trained?”   When Reik, having already gotten a Ph.D. in Applied Psychoanalysis, applied to the Austrian authorities to be recognized as a psychoanalyst, they invoked some obscure law, decided that Reik was a quack, and prosecuted him for doing wild analysis. Beleaguered, he appealed to Freud to help him in this situation.  Freud responded by brilliantly, and eruditely, writing The Question of Lay Analysis, which, in effect, won Reik’s case for him.  Now, Reik was accepted as a psychoanalyst.  But that’s not the end of the story.

In 1936, when the Holocaust came, Reik left Europe and came to America—and of course, what kind of reception did he receive here?  The American Medical Association, with all of its medical personnel, absolutely refused to recognize Reik as an analyst—with the exception that he was allowed to treat children (apparently you don’t have to be too smart to do so!).  He could also teach, but he was forbidden to do any other kind of psychoanalysis.  That infuriated Reik, so you all know what he did, right?  What did he do?  He founded his own institute—NPAP—which is the forerunner and inspiration for all of our other non-medical psychoanalytic institutes.  Some of the first people who came into the Modern Psychoanalytic movement worked with and taught at NPAP, which also is the forerunner of Heed University’s School of Psychoanalysis.

Heed University has an illustrious past, in terms of its forerunners.  It is a pleasure to be part of it, and now part of its revitalization. With the help of Susan Jakubowicz and the faculty and administration, Heed University is being reinvigorated.  I am glad to support this new growth and I hope you all will support the development of this program too!