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April 12, 2006
Peter L. Rudnytsky, Editor
American Imago
Dear Peter,
A cherished friend and colleague recently telephoned me from Paris to let me know, in case I had not yet heard, that Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel has passed away. In Paris she received many beautiful tributes, sad, eloquent, and deeply felt. After the death of her distinguished husband Béla Grunberger last year, the loss now of Janine (or Jeanne as many friends called her) comes as a heavy blow to the psychoanalytic community not only within France but the world over. Her ideas were stunningly original, her range widely interdisciplinary, her works translated into many languages and inspiring to countless readers, even to those who did not always concur with her ideas. Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel was a powerful woman, possessed of temerity, grit, passion, generosity, pugnacity, and, always, an incredible elegance. Those who knew her will recall the little details—her scarves, her cloaks, her eloquent gestures. I write today not to offer a formal tribute to her legacy, a tribute she richly deserves, but merely to express my personal sorrow at the loss of a truly great lady.
Only a year and a half ago, at the Sixth Delphi International Psychoanalytic Symposium in Greece, where we both gave papers, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend casual time chatting and dining with Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, whom I had met only briefly in the past and with whom I had corresponded