Orbituary

Anne Kristin Rustad, a member of the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society, died at the age of 73. She was an M.D, specialist in child-, adolescent- and adult psychiatry and psychoanalysis, working in private practice at the Psychoanalytic Institute in Oslo.

Anne Kristin Rustad was a great resource in the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Institute and Society being a training analyst, supervisor and teacher working with adults, children and adolescents. As one of the few child analysts in Norway, she worked for decades with child analyses. Anne Kristin told us what led her to work with children was her first clinical experience with psychotic patients admitted to institutions. It made an immense impact on her. The deep pain and suffering she faced inspired and motivated her to understand the unsymbolized and nonverbal. In order to give meaning to the symptoms, one must return to the child and the infant’s development, she argued, to comprehend the suffering of the adult.

Anne Kristin Rustad’s clear analytical thinking, humane approach, sharp intellect and sense of humor had a personal impact on all who knew her. In the seminars, she had the unique combination of being sensitive, deeply serious and playful at the same time. She had a remarkable clinical intuition, theoretical clearness and deep trust in the psychoanalytical method. With courage, she addressed primitive, infantile layers in the human psyche; - take your countertransference seriously, she said.

Her understanding of ‘our adult world and its roots in infancy’ was astonishing. In the seminars, session after session, year after year, we sat together, immersed in theory and clinical thinking. In concentration. Deeply serious. Suddenly laughing. A mild frustration. An outburst in tears. At a fast pace. No one left the seminar groups with Anne Kristin untouched; emotions were welcome and encouraged! Graciously, she conveyed a complex, theoretical framework with clarity and authori