Jeremy Safran (1952 −2018)

Jeremy Safran was a beloved teacher and mentor. At a time when psychoanalysis had lost its central place in most clinical psychology programs, he attracted students, young scholars and academics to a psychoanalytic perspective. Jeremy was one of the rare scholars and practitioners who spoke to many diverse communities—psychoanalysis, psychotherapy research, Buddhism, social critique, and more.

Dr. Safran was Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research and on the faculty at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and The Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center. He was also a long-time board member and past president of the International Association for Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (IARPP), and co-founder and co-chair (with Lewis Aron and Adrienne Harris) of the Sandor Ferenczi Center at The New School. Jeremy was a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Medical Center (New York), a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, an advisory editor for Psychotherapy Research, an associate editor for Psychoanalytic Dialogues, senior editor for Public Seminar, and served on the editorial boards of a number of other journals in the United States and other countries.

Dr. Safran’s research on therapeutic impasses and alliance ruptures (with J. Christopher Muran) was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and led to numerous theoretical and empirical publications. In addition to his over 150 journal articles and chapters, he published several significant books on a wide variety of subjects, including alliance ruptures and therapeutic impasses, emotion in psychotherapy, psychotherapy integration, psychotherapy and Buddhism, therapist mindfulness and self-regulation, relational psychoanalysis, and the themes of faith, agency and surrender in the therapeutic process. He also authored broad introductions to analytic therapies for wider audiences, including two p