Obituary: Lionel Ovesey 1915-1995

Lionel Ovesey, a psychoanalytic pioneer in the study of homosexuality, sex, and gender, died on 21 May 1995, at the age of 80, after a series of debilitating strokes. His work is an integral part of the intellectual heritage of the Columbia University Center for Training and Research, founded in 1945. Ovesey—Lion as he was called—and Aaron Karush, two of the institute’s first graduates, along with its founders, Sandor Rado, George Daniels, Abram Kardiner, and David Levy, shaped the Center’s direction with their collective vision. Their thrust—groundbreaking in the 40s and 50s—was to broaden the basis of understanding psychological motivation, stressing the importance of adaptation and the need for establishing safety. They studied the impact of the cultural milieu on the psyche and they were intent on strengthening the scientific underpinnings of psychoanalysis.

Lion was born in Manchuria, where his Ukrainian parents had emigrated, and as a young boy the family moved to the United States. The contrast between the family’s lavish lifestyle in Manchuria and their relatively reduced circumstances in Los Angeles gave him an early and personal understanding of how different circumstances and cultures impact on one’s life. Central to his whole personality was the fusion of his sensitivity to (and identification with) the disadvantaged and his aristocratic personal style.

Lion graduated from the University of California in 1937, from the University of California Medical School in 1941, and interned at the Los Angeles County General Hospital. His medical education was interrupted by the war, and he spent four years in the United States Army, rising to the rank of Captain. As flight surgeon, he was exposed to the traumatic aftermath suffered by crash survivors and he became increasingly interested in psychological problems. He moved to New York City in 1945 in order to begin psychiatric training at Manhattan State Hospital and psychoanalytic training at Columbia. Lion had chos