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The lamented death of John Rickman on 1 July, 1951, at the age of 60, deprived the psycho-analytical movement in Great Britain not only of one who had played an important part in the foundation and organization of those institutions which preside over the teaching and practice of psycho-analysis in that country, but also of one whose sprite-like, if perhaps at times somewhat erratic, genius never failed to add colour and interest to the meetings of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the councils of the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. The quality of his genius being what it was, the intellectual reputation which he established among his contemporaries was not built upon the painstaking elaboration on his part of any system of original ideas at all comparable to that which has earned special recognition for the work of his colleague, Melanie Klein. It was based rather upon his penetrating flashes of intellectual insight and rapier-thrusts of critical judgment, which were such as to preclude any intellectual stagnation or complacency among those exposed to his influence. His own originality thus functioned in no small measure as a means of provoking and encouraging original thought in others. Fortunately, ample opportunity for the exercise of such a function was provided not only at scientific meetings and in private conversation, but also in the course of his editorial duties, to which so much of his time was devoted, particularly during his tenure of the editorship of the British Journal of Medical Psychology between 1935 and 1948. In general it may be said that the influence which he exercised within the field of psycho-analytical thought was mediated by his personal influence rather than by his published writings, which, for the most part, assumed the form of occasional contributions to the journals; and for this reason alone it seems doubtful whether a permanent record of his name will be left in the history of psycho-analytical thought. The appearance