Dr. Joseph J. Sandler of London has been named the first chair holder of the Sigmund Freud Chair in Psychoanalysis at the Hebrew University, it was announced recently by Dr. Martin Wangh, International Chairman of the Sigmund Freud Fund.
An eminent psychoanalytic scholar and educator, Dr. Sandler has made innumerable contributions to the literature and is Chief Editor of the British Journal of Medical Psychology, the International Journal of Psycho-analysis, and the International Review of Psychoanalysis. He has also been President of the European Psychoanalytic Federation.
In the near future, Dr. Sandler will be moving to Jerusalem with his wife, Anne-Marie Sandler, a well known psychoanalyst in her own right. As holder of the Chair, it is Dr. Sandler's plan to initiate a number of psychoanalytic projects that will be of interest to the international community.
The establishment of the Sigmund Freud Chair in Psychoanalysis has realized a long held wish of Freud himself. A letter of his, written in 1932, to Professor David Baumgardt of New York and found recently in the latter's legacy, makes clear his feeling.
December 17, 1932
Wien IX Berggasse 19
My dear Professor (Baumgardt)
The intention of the Zionist organization to establish a chair for psychoanalysis in our University at Jerusalem meets with one of my innermost wishes. I already acknowledged that I think the choice of Dr. Wulff as representative of our young science a very fortunate one. However, where to get the money for the establishment of the chair, I do not know. I am afraid that this beautiful plan will fail because of the financial difficulty.
Cordially yours,
Freud
A sustained fund raising campaign, led by Dr. Wangh, Anna Freud as honorary chairman, a committee of internationally based psychoanalysts and supported by the world-wide psychoanalytic community has, forty-six years later, allowed this “beautiful plan” to become a reality.
Speaking for analysts everywhere, Dr. Wangh summed up the feelings of his colleagues when he remarked at its inauguration that “The establishment of the Sigmund Freud Chair to exist in perpetuity in this new-old place, Jerusalem, is symbolic of the elemental and fundamental quality of Freud's discoveries about the human mind.”