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We are stunned by the sudden, tragic death of Ruth Mack Brunswick, so bewildered that we can hardly believe that she is no longer among us. We can not yet fully realize what that loss means to some of us as friends, to all of us as psychoanalysts. As a friend, she was unsurpassed, true and faithful, always ready for personal sacrifices. As a psychoanalyst, she was devoted to her patients and faithful to her teacher, averse to any compromise, and had much to offer.
In former years her poor physical health prevented her from full participation in the activities of the Society. But in the last year she showed so much vitality, she was in such good spirits, that there was ample reason to expect her more active collaboration. She had many plans and ideas for further scientific work, and now it is difficult to believe that one can no longer discuss all these problems with her.
One may say that her whole personality predestined her to become a psychoanalyst. Her warmth, her humaneness, coupled with a lucid mind and vision made her particularly fit for the delicate work of psychoanalysis. Reading her papers, from the first one to the last, one cannot help but admire her perspicacity, her sound judgment and deep understanding of human nature, combined with warmth and sympathy for the patient whom she knew how to guide with rare skill. She was able to grasp and comprehend the whole personality, and when she talked about a case one envisaged the patient as a living being. If you only remember her paper about delusions of jealousy, it seems almost unbelievable that one could accomplish therapeutically so much in such a short time and have gained such deep psychological insight as well.