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I've known Anni Bergman for many years. We are both long-standing members of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research [IPTAR]. Until recently, however, when I asked her to write or collaborate in the writing of a piece about her work with Margaret Mahler, we were only acquaintances. I called Anni about the project in May 2011. She expressed keen interest and enthusiasm. Early in June we met for lunch and I described, briefly, some ideas I had for the work. I asked her either to write an article about her experiences with Mahler or to engage in an interview with me by which we might explore her recollections of that period of her life. We left her decision open until the next time we met.
At Anni's invitation, I met her again at her home in Chelsea on June 28. She gave me a brief tour of her office on the top floor of the small building where she lives and works. Not long ago, an image of it appeared in a New York Times article about an exhibit of photographs of the offices and workspaces of several psychoanalysts. It looked smaller than in the photograph, but the warmth and patterned color of the decor had been accurately reproduced. The pleasing floral and leaf motif was not confined to Anni's office: variations of it suffused all the rooms and lent them a bucolic airiness. It was as if she lived in a Bonnard interior.
Anni is an attractive and startlingly energetic nonagenarian. Her shoulder-length gray hair frames a face unadorned by makeup despite the lines etched by the years. There is a candor and straightforwardness in her expression and her eyes are alert and observant behind the large lenses of her glasses. She negotiated the steep staircases of her triplex with ease and, later, when we walked a few long blocks to an electronics store where I bought a fresh tape for my cassette recorder, she easily outpaced me.
On our return, she asked me whether I'd care for a cup of exceptionally good coffee and, when I said I would, she led me to a small shop