H. A. Van Der Sterren—(1904–1974)

In the midst of plans to leave for an impending brief vacation, just as he was enjoying browsing through the travel-folders, Driek van der Sterren died shortly after an operation. It was 27 April 1974. In the autumn, after his 70th birthday, there was a far-flung journey in store for him which was to be a gift from his numerous grateful pupils, who were happy to offer him the opportunity of a visit to the sites of his beloved Greek antiquity.

In the analytic world, he was a rare bird.

Reared on a farm as the bright youngest son of a very Roman Catholic family in the south of the Netherlands, he was destined for the priesthood and attended both the Minor and the Major Seminary, but after only one year of the latter he departed northwards to study medicine at the University of Amsterdam. In 1930 he received his medical degree. During this period he was extremely active in Roman Catholic student life, and it would have seemed self-evident at the time that he should also pursue his career in a Catholic institution. He specialized as a psychiatrist and neurologist, went to work in a Catholic mental hospital and in 1935 was appointed Medical Director of the Roman Catholic Paedological Institute in Nijmegen. In the meantime he had written his thesis on a neurological subject while in fact he was already intensely involved in psychiatry and child psychology.

As early as 1934, while negotiating for his future Medical Directorship, he had stated his intention to follow psychoanalytic training, so that, in view of the foreign orientation that was agreed upon, it was no more than to be expected that he went to study with Aichhorn in Vienna.

He immediately began his analytic training and chose Sterba as his training analyst. For the first time he now found an opportunity to exercise his great need to penetrate things with deep understanding. Upon his return after one year he was so decisively formed by this experience that a conflict with the board of directors and the exist