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When The Training in child analysis started there was a shortage of supervisors who were actively engaged in child analytic psychotherapy. I had known of Jess Guthrie for many years. She had long experience in training child psychotherapists at the Child Guidance Training Centre and
was known to be sympathetic to analytical psychology. She was held in high esteem there and by her colleagues in the Association of Child Psychotherapists. Of this she had been a founder member and later chairman on more than one occasion. Furthermore it was she who initiated the publication of The Journal of Child Psychotherapy of which she was the first editor.
I therefore asked her whether she would like to come to meetings of the Society's Children's Section: she did so and it soon became clear that she was interested and appreciative of the discussions that we were holding. Therefore it was possible to introduce her as an active member of our training staff. In addition she represented us on the A.C.P. and gave us valuable insights into how that association worked. After a suitable period she was proposed for and accepted as an Honorary Member of the Society.
Our expectations were amply fulfilled. That she had a sensitive and penetrating understanding of children we already knew; it proved that the same characteristics applied to the supervision of students and to the seminars on clinical material which she held each year. Her loss will only with difficulty be made up for in the training. To indicate how much she was appreciated I can only say that the students expressed it in their wish that a fund should be started to commemorate her. Their grief was shared by all those who came in contact with Jess Guthrie.
Michael Fordham