In Tribute to John Forrester (1949-2015)

In this issue we remember John Forrester. An active, inspiring presence in the world of psychoanalysis across geographic and disciplinary boundaries, he opened new paths in psychoanalytic theory, the philosophy of psychoanalysis, and psychoanalytic history. He did so in the first place as a historian of science and culture, in works such as Dispatches from the Freud Wars: Psychoanalysis and Its Passions, and, with Lisa Appignanesi, in Freud's Women: Family, Patients, Followers. He did so also as the innovative, tireless editor of Psychoanalysis and History, as a colleague and mentor, and as a teacher. American Imago was privileged to have John serve on its editorial advisory board for more than a decade, and we are honored to publish here the tributes to him that Maud Ellmann, Sherry Turkle, and Daniel Pick presented at the service dedicated to him at King's College, Cambridge, in May of this year. -The Editor

I first met John Forrester way back in the 1970s, when he was a Junior Research Fellow at King's, and renowned for his prodigious knowledge of Freud. I was an undergraduate in English at the time, and I was taking a Tripos paper that is still quaintly known as “the English Moralists,” which covers such honorary Englishmen as Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. My supervisor for this paper was Colin McCabe, fresh from Paris and bursting with exciting new ideas, which were regarded with intense suspicion in stick-in-the-mud Cambridge. Anyway it was Colin's brainwave, for which I am eternally grateful, that I should get in touch with John Forrester to benefit from his expertise in psychoanalysis. So I did, and we spent an unforgettable hour talking about Freud and Lacan.

As a teacher John conveyed a great sense of authority, but not by flaunting his learning or brilliance; he held those