You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
I faced the task of writing this editorial with some trepidation. The thought of writing a conventional introduction to the work of such a well-known and brilliant psychoanalytic scholar as Patrick Mahony seemed daunting. A mere listing of his extraordinary achievements would add little to our understanding of the man who has contributed so much original psychoanalytic scholarship through the years.
As I read through the two remarkable contributions from Patrick Mahony that are the centrepiece of this issue of the journal, an idea came to me. I would ask the man himself to talk about his life, his career, and his contributions to psychoanalysis. To my great pleasure, Patrick readily agreed. We met for lunch, but not before he sent me a freshly written and personal essay which he entitled “Talking Out Loud.” What follows is a blend of our lunchtime talk and his written thoughts.
Like Freud before him, Patrick Mahony began his psychoanalytic odyssey following the death of his father. He was then in his late thirties, a New Yorker, of Irish-American background, living in Montreal, and working as a university teacher. He writes, “Once back in Montreal, I read the three volumes of Jones's biography of Freud and said to myself that Jones did not synthesize the many valuable things he wrote about psychoanalysis and language. Intellectually, but even more, emotionally, I was ready for analysis; the repressed had returned as victor.”
He entered analysis and soon realized that he wanted to become an analyst. As he states, “I said to myself that I'd like to give to others what I myself was receiving.” He continues, “Fast forward to my improvement in analysis, the regaining of tremendous energy, and the excitement of