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Marie Coleman Nelson, former Editor of this Review, died on June 1 at her home in Philadelphia. She was 82. The cause was complications from emphysema.
Ms. Nelson was especially known for her innovative theoretical and clinical contributions to psychoanalytic practice. Together with her husband, Benjamin Nelson, a well-known sociologist, historian and former Advisory Editor of this Review, Ms. Nelson introduced a psychoanalytic model known as paradigmatic psychotherapy. In 1957, the Nelsons published “Paradigmatic Psychotherapy in Borderline Treatment,” an article that initiated this mode of therapy. In paradigmatic treatment the analyst is conceived to enact different roles which are induced by various ego states of the analysand. The ramifications and effects of the paradigmatic model remain evident in the paradoxical and “joining” methods of psychotherapy current today. Marie Nelson was later editor and main contributor to the volume Roles and Paradigms in Psychotherapy , her major publication among many in psychoanalysis.
Ms. Nelson was one of the very first students trained at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, where she remained an active member until her death. Before becoming an NPAP student, Marie Coleman Nelson worked as a labor organizer and spent ten years as a journalist and writer of farm and labor news. During 1945-1948, she compiled case histories on dementia praecox both in written and film form, under a research grant from the Scottish Rites Foundation.
During her affiliation with NPAP, Ms. Nelson took many leadership responsibilities. For various periods she sat on its Board of Directors and was chair of the Faculty and Curriculum Committee. Most notably, Ms. Nelson served as Managing Editor of The Psychoanalytic Review, from 1957 through 1967.