In Memoriam

After a long career characterized by pulling away neurotic curtains, striking sparks, helping friends and patients to undertake inner voyages, shining light into darkened recesses, and finding unexpected opportunities, Dr. Bella Van Bark died on December 19, 1992, of a brain tumor. She had been in declining health for a year or more.

Born in 1905, Bella was an only child until age 17 when, after her mother's death, her father remarried and had a second family. Bella attended Cornell, where she excelled in bacteriology. She also majored in history and math and took premedical courses. Despite economic difficulties, she eventually graduated from the Women's Medical College.

During her studies, she married Peter Van Bark. This marriage lasted a short time, and since the divorce, she lived alone.

After working as a physician in various specialties, Dr. Van Bark gravitated to psychiatry. While completing her training at the State Hospital in Brooklyn, she met other psychiatrists who were enthusiastic about Karen Horney's approach to psychoanalysis. Dr. Van Bark was swept off her feet by Horney's new formulations, by her energy, and by the unfolding of her theory of neurosis.

She became a candidate of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. Her analyst was Muriel Ivimey, and she had supervision with Elizabeth Kilpatrick, Horney, and others. Her later work with Alexander Reid Martin had the most profound influence on her, as she became awakened to the emotional, the poetic, the fantasy life, the spiritual aspects of being.

Dr. Van Bark became active in the Horney group. She began writing and lecturing. Her numerous papers included “The Only Child,” “Maturity,” and “Harmony in Marriage.” One of her outstanding papers was “Smartness and Stupidity,” a consideration of those issues as patients raise them in analysis.

She served for many years as a Trustee of the Institute and as a member of the Institute's Faculty Council. She was associate editor and consulting editor of this jo