Earl G. Witenberg

Psychoanalysis has been aptly characterized as a theory of human behavior, as a body of facts accumulated about human behavior, and as a technique of investigating and treating disturbances in human behavior. These are the intellectual dimensions of our field. In 1914, Freud added another dimension in his paper, “On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement.” In this title, Freud was emphasizing the position and impact of psychoanalysis in society. Movements require institutions, organization, energy, and leadership. The intellectual history of psychoanalysis and the evolution of its theories is paralleled by the organizational history of groups of psychoanalysts and the formal arrangements for training and dissemination of new knowledge. Few indeed are the psychoanalysts who have made signal contributions in the theoretical-intellectual and in the formal organizational aspects of psychoanalysis.

William B. Silverberg was such an analyst. A gentle man, a profound scholar of psychoanalysis, steeped in the classics, William Silverberg had also a steely courage and rare understanding of how human beings related to one another in organizations. He was among the small band who helped break the shackles on psychoanalytic theory, imposed by organizational rigidity, that led ultimately to the establishment of The American Academy of Psychanalysis.

Earl G. Witenberg is a most worthy recipient of the annual award in honor of William Silverberg. Earl Witenberg exemplifies the happy fusion of scholarship and practical organizational skills, which have characterized the leading figures in the history of psychoanalysis. Curiously, he began his professional work in a field sometimes thought