Memories of Marian

Ifirst met Marian when I went to her for a consultation. I was thinking about going into analysis, and Marian was the analyst of a close friend of mine. He suggested that I talk with her. Marian listened sympathetically to the tale of woe that I told her about my family and their difficult history. After I was done, Marian sat for a few moments, considered what I had said, and then responded that it was “interesting” that with all the hardship and trauma that my family had suffered, what I had not seemed to consider was that they had all kept on going. They had never given up. To put it mildly, her response took me by surprise. This was in the early 1980s. In retrospect, I can see that Marian was thinking about the forward edge even back then.

When I needed a supervisor for my third control case, I went to Marian. I knew that she was terribly busy, but I was hoping against hope that she would find the time to supervise me on a therapy case that I was converting to analysis. She agreed. I did not know it, but around that same time, Marian had become deeply involved in working out her ideas about the forward edge transference. What started at that point was one of the richest and most satisfying experiences that I had during the course of my analytic training. Marian quickly sized up my case and saw how my patient and I were stuck in a rehashing of the trauma and conflict that had characterized the patient's life. Just as in the family history that I had recounted to Marian, I had not seen the tendrils of health or the positive strivings that also were part of my patient's story. Again and again, Marian patiently pointed out when, where, and how I missed the forward edge in my patient's

work. I was constantly amazed at her patience (particularly given the tremendous impatience that I had found with some of my other supervisors). I attended Marian's forward edge class for a number of years, and she and I also presented our analytic case together at two o