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If there is one feature of psychoanalytic education at the New York Psychoanalytic which distinguishes it from others, it is the emphasis by the faculty that, apart from the training analysis itself, the clinical essence of psychoanalysis is transmitted best through direct personal contact and not through the printed page. Psychoanalytic education happens best not between readers and authors but between people, whether in supervision or in the classroom or in extramural exchanges. And this is true whether the teacher is among “Analysts Who Write … “or “Those Who Don't” (Stein, 1988). What is retained most clearly in memory of our great teachers, no matter how much or how little they may have written, are intense moments of personal instruction, examples of how they actually analyzed. Former students for instance of Heinz Hartmann (who wrote copiously) and Otto Isakower (who wrote little) will in both cases quote vivid personal supervisory or classroom moments, not texts. This tradition has continued through the years, sometimes surprising those who approach us from afar in search of our authors only to find us focused more on the personal pedagogy and less on the pages. Of course we are grateful as analysts for the lasting contributions of our many distinguished authors, but what we remember most vividly as students are their personal examples.
Ted Becker, whose loss we mourn in this issue, was just such a teacher, whose personal impact will be remembered forever by his students, and passed on to their own students. Ted's influence can be felt both in the clinical excellence of his students’ presentations, and in the way his teaching surfaces in their memories as they are working: “And at this point we hear Ted Becker's voice.…” We are pleased to present in this issue the Ted Becker Memorial Meeting of