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Psychoanalyst Jan Stensson, Lund, died on June 27, 2024, at the age of 88. Next of kin are his wife Monica and his children Mia and Joakim.
Jan was one of the last parsonage children in a family of priests since the sixteenth century. He did not become a priest himself. He completed his training as a child therapist in 1962 and began working as a psychoanalyst in 1964. He worked in his private practice in Stockholm until his retirement in 2004. What was unique about Jan was his listening skills. The patient was given the opportunity to let his thoughts wander freely without feeling placed in prefabricated categories.
Jan participated in the formation of the Swedish Association for Holistic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in 1968. His family tradition was reflected in the building of a new association and a new training program. Through its institute, the association also conducted training of psychoanalysts. For several years Jan was the director of the institute. He was appreciated as a supervisor and in his teaching that activated the participants’ formulation of their own ideas. He was also an honorary member of the Istituto Psicoterapia Analitica in Florence, Italy, reflecting his engagement in the international psychoanalytic community.
I shared a practice with Jan for more than 30 years. We jokingly said that neither of us was a sociable person. Nevertheless, Jan built up a wide international network. At only 27 years of age Jan took part in the Amsterdam Forum of 1962 at which the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) was founded. This was his first step in the creation of an international network, which during the coming years was strengthened by his participation in IFPS fora and scientific meetings as well as meetings of the IFPS general assembly. He built friendships with colleagues in a great many countries and cultures.
An outcome of these efforts was the decision of IFPS to publish an English-speaking journal, the International Forum