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Stanley Cath has forged a psychoanalytic career in a different mold. While he has been recognized as an outstanding clinician, scholar, and teacher, he did all that while marching to his own drummer. He has not been content to accept the shibboleths which governed psychoanalysis over the last six decades, but has instead been a psychoanalyst in the community. In recognition of that the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies sought to learn why and how his life's work has been so creative and original.
Prior to this meeting the interviewer read one unpublished manuscript written by Stanley Cath, titled The Aging of a Liberal, Dignities and Indignities of Old Age. He also read two published book chapters. These are “Divorce and the Child: ‘The Father Question Hour’ “which appeared in the book Father and Child, Developmental and Clinical Perspectives, (pp. 467-479; Cath, S. H., Gurwitt, A. R., & Ross, J. M. (Eds), Boston: Little Brown, ), and “Some Autobiographical Notes by a Psychogeriatrician in ‘That Time of Year’: The Role of Devalued Fathers and Adopted Great Parents” which appeared in the book How Psychiatrists Look at Aging (volume 2, pp. 213-227; Pollock, G. H. (Ed.), Madison, CT: IUP, ).
The setting: We are talking in the living room of Stanley Cath's apartment in San Francisco, California, where he and his wife moved a couple of years ago, after 53 years in Boston, Massachusetts. The date is March 11, 2007.
Question: How did you become a psychoanalyst?
Answer: I trained in psychiatry for nine months before I entered the Army in 1948, and was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. There I was Chief of the Mental Hygiene Clinic. I had my own jeep and would drive to Philadelphia and started analytic training there while still in the military. I was responsible for 19,000 men, including men in the Air Force. I knew I had to deal with family problems, and I went to Gerald Pearson and asked for supervision. Pearson refused to accept a fee. Later Pearson le