Andrew Tershakovec, M.D., 1921-2007

My good friend and esteemed colleague Andrew Tershakovec died on October 23, 2007. It is highly fitting that he should be remembered in the journal that Karen Horney founded, for he was a graduate of The American Institute for Psychoanalysis, a member of its faculty for many years, and a person who has done much to keep Horney's theories up-to-date by integrating them with the findings of the cognitive sciences. The great project of his life was his book The Mind: the Power that Changed the Planet, published in 2007 after decades of intense thought and study. I helped Andrew with the writing of this book and shall say more about it and my relation with him later, but first a brief review of Andrew's background and professional activity.

Andrew was born into a Ukrainian family that valued education. His father was a student of Old Slavonic literature who eventually taught at the university level, and two of his three siblings earned M.D. degrees. Andrew attended medical school from 1939 to 1944 in what is now Lviv, Ukraine, and was then part of Poland and known as Lwow. After the war, he completed his studies at the University of Vienna, receiving his M.D. degree in 1946. It is remarkable that he was able to acquire his education during such a turbulent period.

Andrew came to the United States in 1949, and in 1960 he married Tatiana (Tania), his wife of 47 years. At the time of their marriage, Tania was working as a medical technologist for Cornell's Department of Virology. (She died suddenly two weeks before he did and without his knowledge.) After postgraduate work at NYU, an internship, and a residency, Andrew entered training at the American Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1964 and was certified as a psychoanalyst in 1970.

In the 1970s, Andrew was a very busy man. He taught at the American Institute and served as a Supervising and Training Analyst and a member of the Faculty Council. He also taught at the Dunlap Psychiatric Center, at the New School for Social Resea