Who is the Patient in Modern Analytic Family Therapy: A Modern Psychoanalytic Perspective*

I was honorably discharged from the Army in 1945 at the age of 23, having been awarded both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Experieicing the horror and holocaust of World War II helped me clarify my career goals. In the autobiographical section of my application to various schools of social work, I described that “a foxhole is not the most comfortable place to mature but it can be helpful.” I was determined to become a social worker and to help society become healthier and more civilized. I was accepted as a student at the New York School of Social Work of Columbia University, which had a psychoanalytically oriented social work curriculum taught by eminent leaders such as Nathan Ackerman, Nathan Cohen, Gordon Hamilton, Marion Kenworthy, Philip Klein, Edward Lindeman, Sophia Robinson, John Thurott, etc. In 1947, I spent a most enrighing and rewarding summer at the summer camp, Camp Chief Noonday, Michigan. This was a field placement run by a group therapist-psychoanalyst, Dr. Fritz Redl, where two clinical courses were offeed—clinicl group work theory and practice. I was encouraged by Dr. Redl to pursue a therapy career. He offered me a position as a group therapist in a boys' home out West which he administred.