Edward Bibring—1894-1959

On January 11, 1959, Edward Bibring died after a long illness. His friends witnessed with wonderment and profound feeling his courageous battle with his illness, and never saw him dispirited even when he became physically helpless and was no longer capable of expressing the thoughts of his alert mind audibly.

He was stricken in the fullness of his unusual abilities as a clinician and a teacher of psychoanalysis. His scientific aspiration was always to impart psychoanalysis pure and undiluted to his pupils. He had already as a student of philosophy developed those qualities of thinking which enabled him later as a physician to understand psychoanalytic psychology thoroughly, to absorb it, and to pass it on to others. This knowledge he could richly express when he became a member of the teaching committee of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, as well as when he was elected the head of the Psychoanalytic Clinic in Vienna. He gave up this position only when he and other members of the Society, who had remained with Freud, were forced by the impact of events to leave their country.

Because of his profound knowledge of psychoanalysis and of his ability to think clearly, critically, and constructively, Edward Bibring was called upon to serve as a co-editor of the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse. He was invited to continue his teaching during the three years he spent in London. He became, in addition, co-editor of the revised German edition of Freud's Collected Papers. About 1940 he made Boston his permanent residence. He was made Chairman of the Educational Committee and, later, President of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

Among the many losses of distinguished members of the group in Vienna which centered around Freud, the gap which Edward Bibring leaves in their ranks is particularly great. His outstanding characteristic was the tenacity with which he kept intact the principles of psychoanalysis. His teaching bore out his conviction.