With Thanks to George Ernsberger

Since 1976, when this journal was first published, there has been one consistent, steady and intrepid force, behind the scenes, editing the pages of Modern Psychoanalysis. This person is none other than George Ernsberger. While George has retired from his post on our publication, he remains very much imprinted in the style, format and quality of Modern Psychoanalysis, forever.

George was “wise about analysts, both as writers and as clinicians, from a fairly sophisticated lay perspective.” He was always, as he would modestly phrase it, “reasonably knowing” about the profession, even if his work wasn't the work of a professional analyst. He was primarily interested in writers, and especially young or new writers who were embarking on writing about our body of theory/thought, as applied clinically.

The brilliance and experience George readily shared was a gift, even if he didn't always believe in niceties or sugar coating his thoughts about a piece. He relished the opportunity to discuss/argue changes or choices and never took anything personally, nor should the author, he believed. He loved working on the journal and was always eager to discuss its potential, frequently sending emails to us about various aspects of the work. His correspondence lay gloriously somewhere between an encyclopedia entry and a slam poem; unique, informed and evocative writing, marrying a mid-west sensibility with a New York City flare. George compiled much of the style manual we use today and so we often have the pleasure of being with his words.

So, without further ado, what follows is a patchwork quilt we've sewn together, of valuable insight and backstory, in the words of George Ernsberger:

I met Dr. Meadow—my fiance's (Claire Ernsberger's) analyst—in the early ′60's. I'd met Claire in a bookshop she opened halfway between my apartment (Upper West Side) and the subway I took to work every day, surely on the shop's opening day. I came to be aware through our friendship (I very soon began to