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We are sad to report that the Editor-in-Chief of Psychodynamic Psychiatry, Richard C. Friedman, died on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, in New York City. Dr. Friedman did not succumb to COVID-19, but from complications of a long illness. He was at home with family.
Richard C. Friedman was two years short of serving a 10-year term as Editor-in-Chief of this journal. He served the AAPDPP for decades in roles such as Chair of the Research Committee and Chair of Scientific Programs. A graduate of Bard College and the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Dr. Friedman completed psychiatric and psychoanalytic training at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and the Columbia University Center of Psychoanalytic Training and Research. At the time of his death, he was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill-Cornell School of Medicine and Lecturer in Psychiatry at Columbia.
Despite his quite classical training, Dr. Friedman was always willing to assess psychoanalytic theory critically and test it against what was known in biological psychiatry, neuroscience, and research psychology. In areas where psychoanalytic theory had proven to be incorrect, he engaged in spirited argument with colleagues and could—and would—take on authorities. Psychoanalysis, for example, changed its understanding of homosexuality in response to his work.
He was a renowned researcher in sex and gender and a member of the Psychosexual Disorders DSM-III Advisory Committee. He wrote many articles and several books, including in 1988 the ground-breaking volume, Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective (Yale University Press). In 2002 he published Sexual Orientation and Psychoanalysis: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice with Dr. Jennifer Downey (Columbia University, 2002; re-issued in 2008 as Sexual Orientation and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice). In 2019 with Drs. Cesar Alfonso and Jennifer Downey he published Advances in Psychodynamic Psyc