Robert C. Bak, M. D—1908-1974

Dr. Robert C. Bak died in his sleep on the morning of September 15, 1974, just one month before his sixth-sixth birthday.

Born in Hungary, he finished his Gymnasium in 1925 and received his Baccalaureate the same year. He then enrolled in the Law School of the University of Budapest but remained there only one semester. In the fall of 1926 he began to study medicine at the University of Vienna Medical School. From the start of his medical studies his aim was to become a psychoanalyst, an interest fostered by Dr. Sigmund Pfeiffer, his wife's brother-in-law and a pupil of Ferenczi. Through Dr. Pfeiffer, Dr. Bak met Géza Róheim, who became a lifelong friend. On his return to Budapest, Dr. Bak was an intern at Angyalfoeld and Lipotmezoe. In 1930 he studied with Kretschmer at Marburg an der Lahn and with F. A. Levy at the Salpêtrière in Paris. From then, until 1938, he worked off and on at the Psychiatric Clinic of Budapest under Dr. Laszlo Benedek. His training analyst was Dr. Imre Hermann, to whom he remained devoted all his life. At the time of his death he was, in fact, preparing an English translation of Dr. Hermann's papers. He came to New York in 1940 and became a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1943.

Dr. Bak's early interests were in the area of the psychoses, particularly schizophrenia. In 1939 he published Regression of Ego-Orientation and Libido in Schizophrenia. From this paper alone one could have predicted that he would make major contributions to the understanding of the psychoses. Another major area of interest was the perversions, and there too he made many fundamental observations.

In his papers, as in his teaching, Dr. Bak strove toward precision and parsimony. Like Freud, he focused on the essential issue and avoided dilution of concepts. He presented his ideas clearly, enjoying in particular the imaginative use of the correct word or phrase. He avoided clichés, simplification, and the empty use of analytic jargon.

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