Edith Jacobson died on December 8, 1978, after a long illness. She was eighty-one years old.
Born in Germany, Edith received her medical degree in Munich and her analytic training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. It was there that I first met her and I still remember my first impressions of Edith. In the “Kinderseminars” (“Children seminars”) there was a group of young analysts, led by Otto Fenichel, who presented and discussed their cases. Edith's talent and the charm of her personality were immediately apparent. Her case histories were told with an enormous feeling for the drama of the human life, and her contributions to the discussions revealed an unusual clinical acumen.
After the Nazis came to power, many analysts recognized the dangers threatening them and so left Germany. Edith was hesitent to leave because she felt a responsibility to her patients whom she was reluctant to abandon. When it was obvious that she might be investigated by the Gestapo, she left Berlin and came to Copenhagen, where I was living at the time. But she still could not decide to leave Germany altogether, and in spite of my urging and that of Otto Fenichel who was then in Oslo that she not return to Berlin, she did go back there. What we feared might happen did, in fact, occur. Edith was imprisoned for refusing to supply the Gestapo with information regarding the political involvement of her patients. She spent two years in prison, succeeding finally with the help of friends to escape. She then went to live with some friends in Prague.
It is probable that the deprivations which Edith had to endure in prison were responsible for the weakened physical condition in which she remained for subsequent years. But it is also a testament to Edith's admirable and undefeatable spirit that her interest and involvement in psychological observation persisted during those difficult years in prison. She studied her fellow prisoners, trying to perceive the impact of prison life of their personality changes. The results of these observations were formulated in a paper “Observations on the psychological effect of imprisonment on female political prisoners” (published in Searchlights on Delinquency, edited by K. R. Eissler, International University Press, New York 1949). This paper has been widely praised by colleagues. Martin Stein marvelled at Edith's ability to survive such an experience without evidence of malice or self-pity. And he further remarked: “Even more extraordinary was her ability to distance herself and to employ her memories of it for a scientific contribution to the literature on penology, an important sociological comment on the treatment of prisoners and a brilliant discussion of the dynamics of depersonalization.” Jacob Arlow, in his paper “The clinical base of Dr. Jacobson's contribution,” pointed out that one can find in this paper the roots for much of Edith Jacobson's later work.
In 1940, Edith settled in New York and established her psychoanalytic practice there. Her exceptional talents were soon recognized. She became a training analyst and later was elected president of the New York Psychoanalytic Society. The years in New York represent the most productive period in Edith Jacobson's career. Her scientific work has been published in two books, The Self and the Object World (International University Press, New York, 1964) and Depression: Comparative Studies in Normal, Neurotic and Psychotic Conditions (International University Press, New York, 1971).
The new theory of depression which was developed by Edith Jacobson is based on observations of a different type of patient than that previously described by psychoanalysts. The so-called borderline cases or narcissistic personalities present a pathology distinct from the classic neurotic type in which the ego is less disturbed. Edith postulates that these patients seek solution to their emotional and instinctual conflicts in a regressive escape which involves not only instinstual regression, but also a severe regressive process in the whole personality organization due to constitutional and environmental factors, such as early emotional deprivation, instinctual overstimulation or frustration. These patients are evidently predisposed to such a profound regressive process by an arrested defective ego and superego development.
The science of psychoanalysis lost in Edith Jacobson one of its most gifted workers, but her contributions will stimulate further research for a long time to come. Her colleagues and companions lost in Edith a devoted friend, one who was always ready to listen and offer help when needed. She will be sadly missed.
George Gero