Pentti Ikonen (1924-2024)

Pentti Ikonen, MA, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, Honorary member of the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society, died on April 5th, 2024, in Ilomantsi. He was 99 years old.

Ikonen was born in Jääski (a municipality in Carelia, today part of Russia) on November 25th, 1924. He grew up in Helsinki. Seventeen years old he was sent to the battlefront, where he served to the end of the war. Ikonen studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Helsinki, from which he graduated in 1951.

Pentti Ikonen belonged to the small group of Finnish psychologists and physicians who in the beginning of the 50s became interested in psychoanalysis, and who were ready to train abroad. Ikonen moved to Stockholm in 1951, where he started his training analysis and the seminars. He came back to Finland in 1955, finalizing his education from Helsinki. Ikonen became a member of the Swedish Psychoanalytical Society in 1956.

Back in Helsinki, Ikonen worked for some time as a psychologist at Nikkilä hospital. Soon, however, he had a full time private practice. In the foundation of the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society and the initiation of local psychoanalytical training, Ikonen had a central role. He was appointed Training analyst in 1965. In the Society, he had many administrative roles, including President of the Society and Chair of the Training committee.

Within psychoanalysis, Pentti Ikonen had a great impact, not only as a clinician, supervisor, and teacher, but also as a thinker and scientific author. His influence on Finnish psychoanalysis and psychotherapy was both deep and wide: the Finnish way of thinking psychodynamically is largely molded by him.

As a scientist, Ikonen went his own way. He appreciated clarity in thinking and argumentation. His writing genre may be called scientific essay. His papers were published in international journals, and the central texts were collected in four books.

Pentti Ikonen was an invited speaker in US and Europe, but the Nordic countries were his