Risto Fried in Memoriam

Risto (Christoffer) Fried was born into a Parisian Jewish family in 1930. His mother, Anne Fried, was a Viennese writer, and his father, Theodor Fried, a Hungarian pictorial artist. Because of Europe's rampant anti-Semitism and Nazism, Risto was forced to flee from France when he was eight years old. With his mother, he settled in the United States. His father Theodor was hiding in Europe during the war and, astonishingly enough, managed to escape numerous Nazi raids. Theodor Fried also actively took part in the French Resistance against Nazi occupation. After the war, Theodor moved to the United States to be with his family. To Risto's profound disappointment, however, his parents separated soon after his father's arrival.

Risto Fried studied psychology at the Swarthmore College and, a few years later, received his doctorate from Harvard University.

In 1960, Risto travelled to Posio, Finland, where he took part in a camp set up by an international voluntary labour camp organization. This is where Risto met his future wife, Arja, and in 1968 the couple settled in Jyvaüskylaü, Finland, where Risto worked as a psychotherapist, consultant and training psychotherapist. A few years later, Risto Fried was nominated Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Jyvaüskylaü.

In the 1960s, he became acquainted with Martti Siirala in New York, and later on in Finland, he got to know Pirkko Siltala. These relationships led to Risto joining the Therapeia Association, where he was later nominated a training psychoanalyst.

Risto Fried became known as a person with a broad mind and a multicultural viewpoint. He was passionately interested in Sigmund Freud both as a person and as the founder of psychoanalytic theory. Risto's final work, the book Freud on the Acropolis , reveals a greatly learned and creative author with profound astuteness.

Risto Fried was an esteemed researcher of dreams, an expert on Greek mythology and a teacher of psychoanalysis. He has many studen