His Clinical Work

My association with Dr. Martin spanned a 20 year period, first as analysand and later as colleague when I became a candidate in a psychoanalytic institute. As I've thought about how I could most vividly portray this experience, I was reminded of how at the beginning of a session he would say, “What's uppermost?” I decided to go back to that question and try to catch “what's uppermost.”

What comes to mind first was his wholeness. He liked the phrase “living in the all.” A genial Irishman with a zest and curiosity about life, he was always ready, in Emerson's words, “to see the miraculous in the commonplace.” He was devoted to the arts and literature; he was a religious man, well acquainted with the Bible-references to Shakespeare and the Bible were frequent in the treatment; he was a scholar, a member of a society of scholars who several times a year presented papers for their colleagues.

But what I would like to share with you are my recollections of Dr. Martin as an analyst who brought to his work with patients all the richness of his totality and his consummate respect for the uniqueness of the individual. “You are as unique as your fingerprints,” he would say. “We all have more or less the same ingredients; it's the blending that's different and results in a unique way of dealing with universal conflicts, a unique way of coping.” Dedicated to this premise, Dr. Martin's primary concern was to uphold and enhance the autonomy of the patient. He wrote during sessions, explaining, “so that I can play back your words to you.” In this spirit it seemed particularly appropriate tonight that we think about Dr. Martin's words; I would like to play some of them back to you.

On the analytic process. “It is a wondering and wandering together.” The analyst runs beside the train and he may recognize some of the road signs. “I can tell you where to look, but I can't tell you what you'll see. I can tell you what to listen to, but I can't tell you what you'll hear. I will not attempt