Obituary: Dr. Sandor Rado

Dr. Sandor Rado, a distinguished colleague, eminent scientist and significant contributor to psychoanalytic theory and practice, died on May 25, 1972 at the age of 82. He was the last of the original group of Freud's and his passing is the end of an era in psychoanalysis in which colleagues and contemporaries of Freud influenced and directed the developments in psychoanalysis.

From the earliest years of his involvement in psychoanalysis his contributions were directed at the integrations of physiology and physiological mechanisms with psychological theory. His formulations were to be comprehended under the label of “Adaptational Psychodynamics” in distinction to motivational psychology that permeated psychoanalytic theory. He had an extensive background in classic psychoanalysis and until 1939 operated in the framework of the libido theory. At that time he abandoned the libido theory and reformulated his psychoanalytic conceptions in an adaptational psychodynamic framework. Although accepting the undisputed contributions of Freud, he raised many significant questions about some of the doubtful areas in Freud's theorizing. In 1956 in a paper entitled “Adaptational Psychodynamics” he presented his revised approach to psychoanalytic theory. He not only took issue with the libido theory, but formulated a new approach to the unconscious and to the goals and techniques of therapy. His clarification of the sexual deviations arose from his recognition of the interrelated physiological-psychological aspects of human functioning. In his earlier paper “Paths of Natural Science,” written in 1922, he expressed a viewpoint towards science and the scientific method which characterized his productions ever since. He felt that psychoanalysis must go back to its attempts to answer the question: The how of human behavior without calling on a metapsychology for the answers.

His concept of human behavior is based on the dynamic principles of motivation and adaptation. Adaptation of an org