In Memory of Stephen A. Mitchell, Ph.D.

The recent death of Stephen A. Mitchell evoked in me something akin to the loss of a legend. In part, my reaction represents an idealized transference toward a former teacher and supervisor. Even before I was asked to participate in this memorial tribute for Studies in Gender and Sexuality, I had reread his two papers on homosexuality (Mitchell, 1978, 1981) and his last two books (Mitchell, 1997, 2000) as well. As I read, I could hear Steve speak. Thus began, for me, a process of mourning described by Freud (1917) in which the lost external object is gradually, and painfully, taken in as an internal one. Sadly, no matter how enriched we may be by our internal objects, they can never provide complete compensation for the real (or imagined) ones we have lost (Klein, 1935).

Putting my idealization in perspective, however, I know that Steve Mitchell would deny any interest in becoming a legend. He was, however, willing to take risks to put forth ideas that challenged both theoretical dogma and a status quo reinforced by institutional illusions and organizational politics. Those risks included helping to create some new and enduring structures—the journal Psychoanalytic Dialogues, the Relational Track of the