Grinker Memorial Meeting, May 1993

In 1979 the American Academy of Psychoanalysis held a History Committee presentation at its annual meeting honoring Roy Grinker, Sr. It was an historic occasion. The speakers were Dr. Spiegel, Jake Weinberg, David Hamburg, Dan Offer, and Don Okon. Dr. Leo Berman opened the meeting by saying this was to be a Memorial meeting for Dr. Grinker. He immediately recognized his slip and corrected it to the amusement of the audience. Today the Academy again planned to honor Dr. Grinker and it has in fact turned out to be a memorial meeting, since he died last week, at the age of 93. When I began organizing the occasion I was told that he was very ill, but we decided to go ahead with it, and that his son, Roy Grinker, Jr. would accept the honor for him. With sadness and respect for his memory we decided to proceed with the program we planned.

After listening to the tapes of that meeting in 1979, I must say that it was truly a major review of Dr. Grinker's achievements. The speakers at that time knew Dr. Grinker very well, had either worked with him or were his students and colleagues. They presented a picture of his abilities in every dimension of his life, which need not be repeated here. I strongly recommend these tapes and his books on stress. Our speakers today do not have the intimate contacts with him as the former group did, but are deeply grateful and indebted to him for his contributions to our profession, to the science of man, and to Dr. Grinker's role in establishing a respectful and meaningful set of ideas and principles in the behavioral sciences.

The other evening I watched a 90th birthday TV special for Bob Hope. I was astonished at the outpouring of well wishers who honored his well-deserved contributions. Yet his impact on the world and its future is limited to the pleasure he gave to so many people during his career and will end when he dies. I found myself comparing this to our program even though I know this will only