Remembering Alexandra Symonds

The war had ended in 1945; Horney had died in 1952. In the post World War II era, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a great swell of interest in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic training. These were vibrant times, with much change in the air.

Blacks, women, Puerto Ricans and other minorities had served in the war, and there were many civil rights movements afoot. We were rightly proud to have many women on the faculty and committees of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis and the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, but there was only one black candidate. A few South American and Asian candidates enrolled. At that time, however, other minorities were still largely absent from our thinking. We had not yet thought about Native Americans and Asians in terms of civil rights. Homosexuality was still categorized as an illness, and one of our faculty was an outstanding national authority who took this position. If any candidate or staff member was homosexual it was a secret. In those days, women were still thought to be “asking for it” if they wore tight clothing. Too few questions were asked about these perspectives.

Allie and I were candidates together in the late 1950s. We were in some classes together, and later we discovered we had the same analyst. Our classes were often fifteen to twenty students, and the faculty was large also. Classes were frequently taught by two or three instructors, alternating main presentations each session, but all participating in the discussion period. The advantages were numerous. The atmosphere was lively, involved and enthusiastic. There was opportunity for training younger instructors and for an exchange of various points of view.

Most of the staff and some of the students had known Horney personally. Activity was concentrated.

Early in her analytic training Horney pursued subjects close to her personal experience, including feminine psychology, marriage, relations betwee