Joseph W.T. Redfearn: (1921-2011)

Dr. Joseph Redfearn, known to his colleagues as Joe, died aged 90 on 9^th June 2011. Until February he had continued the lengthy commute from his home in Brightlingsea in Essex, to consulting rooms in London as he had done for the last fifteen years of his private practice. Only then did he say he was too tired to continue to travel and that he felt his memory was no longer adequate. He died four months later, three years after his wife, Susan, drifting quietly to death after a few days in hospital.

Joe was a key figure in the life of the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) in London for over 50 years and one of the last of its founding generation. He was analysed for many years by Michael Fordham and became a Training Analyst, Chair of the SAP and Director of Training . It was during this period that the SAP's two formidable leaders, Gerhard Adler and Michael Fordham, eventually failed to reconcile their differences, resulting in a split in the Society in 1976. The official records show that Joe, together with Kate Newton and Camilla Bosanquet (who was Chair at the time), led attempts to find a way to prevent a split, but Adler, with some colleagues, left to found the Association of Jungian Analysts. Adler had been analysed by Jung himself and retained allegiances to the Zurich School, feeling that the SAP was ‘diluting’ Jung. A main difference had been on the content of the training