Maxwell Gitelson—1902-1965

The death of Maxwell Gitelson at the age of sixty-two caused grief and consternation among a large and surprisingly heterogeneous group of people. The expressions of sympathy that poured into his widow's home from friends, acquaintances, and many who had little, if any, personal relationship with him bear witness to his widespread influence and to the loyalty which he evoked. His sincere concern with people and their problems, his warmhearted empathy with them, and his ready helpfulness were responsible for much of the reaction to his death. The depth of feeling aroused was also, I believe, a measure of the degree to which Gitelson's life was permeated by his being a psychoanalyst. One of the psychoanalyst's essential qualities is the capacity to evoke and tolerate transference responses. This capacity, innate in some, acquired and further developed in others, extends not only to the psychoanalyst's patients but to a wide circle of people on the periphery of his professional activity. Gitelson was well endowed with the faculty to call forth transference reactions. Years of psychoanalytic experience taught him to abide such reactions with equanimity. As a result, he attracted the affective cathexes of scores of people, and incidentally added an important asset to his fine therapeutic skills.

Maxwell Gitelson was truly a self-made man. Born in 1902 in Russia, he was brought to this country in early childhood. His family, though imbued with a tradition that valued education and learning, could help him but little, since the struggle for survival fully absorbed their meager resources. Acquiring an education was a hard, sometimes backbreaking task. Determination beyond the ordinary and a willingness to spend of one's essence, to risk health and even endanger life, were qualities that the young student displayed in abundance and which remained characteristic of the man in his prime. He never spared himself and often disregarded the advice of his physicians and