Conversations with Clinicians

Robert Oelsner was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he became a psychoanalyst and faculty of the Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association, and began his longstanding interest in the work of Klein and Bion. Dr. Oelsner is an internationally known teacher and has written numerous psychoanalytic articles, several published in fort da. After many years of traveling to North America to teach and supervise, Dr. Oelsner and his wife Mirta immigrated to Seattle in 2003, where both he and his wife are now training analysts at the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society. Along with teaching and clinical work in Seattle, Dr. Oelsner continues his professional activities throughout the world, including leading several bi-monthly study groups in the Bay Area.

In early October of 2008, I interviewed Dr. Oelsner in his San Francisco hotel room after he had finished a day of teaching and supervising that began at 8:00 a.m. In the first part of our conversation, Dr. Oelsner discusses his strong ties to his German Jewish heritage, along with his rich life experience in Argentina. From his early history and his wide-ranging experience of psychoanalysis in different parts of the world, Dr. Oelsner is in a unique position to help us view psychoanalytic theory and practice from various perspectives. The final section of the interview focuses on the issues and challenges of psychoanalytic education. I hope the reader will find here some of the warmth, wit, and generosity of spirit for which Dr. Oelsner is noted.