James Grotstein (8 November 1925 - 30 May 2015)

James Grotstein, M.D., died on 30 May 2015. He was an authority on the work of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion, and a psychoanalyst friendly to Jung's thought, from which he also drew and often referenced. The JAP editors have asked some analysts who knew him well to offer some of their personal reactions to his life and death.

James Grotstein died at home in Los Angeles on 30 May 2015, surrounded by his family. He was 89, and he supervised and saw patients until shortly before his death.

I feel very grateful to live in Los Angeles and to have known several analysts both personally and professionally over the last 20 years who were analyzed by Wilfred Bion. The most famous and widely published of these was Jim Grotstein, known for his 12 books, my favourite being Who is the Dreamer Who Dreams the Dream: A Study of Psychic Presences. He also published over 250 scholarly papers. I remember being in his office once for supervision, and I think he had five writing projects laid out on the floor. He was known also for encouraging young psychoanalysts, and he wrote many introductions to new books. He continued to write until the final months of his life, and I have no question that he had more to say.

The last time I saw him he was making comments at a conference where he could barely stand but wanted to keep talking. He might well be the most verbal, serious, articulate and humorous person I have ever known.

I am most grateful to Jim for the generous way he encouraged my integration first of Jung and Klein and then of Jung and Bion. He was very respectful and open with me because he knew I had completed a Kleinian analysis after my Jungian training. He and I gave papers at a conference in 1994, sponsored by the Jung Institute of Los Angeles, in which I discussed what my Kleinian analysis had added to my Jungian training and Jim talked about his interest in Jung. This conference caused quite a stir in the L.A. Jungian community.

Lookin