Control Mastery, Joseph Weiss, Joe Weiss | San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group

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Joe Weiss' Memorial Service Dec. 5, 2004

I consider myself most fortunate to have studied and worked with Joe for close to 30 years. Joe was my teacher, clinical supervisor, colleague and friend. His work has profoundly affected my thinking, and his influence will be with me for as long as I live. Joe had a brilliant, creative mind, a generous spirit, a wonderfully irreverent sense of humor and a delightful quick wit. His life was filled with meaning because it was lived with such purpose.

I first came to know Joe when I joined the Mt Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, while on sabbatical leave from the U. of Mass./Boston. At that time I was very interested in engaging in systematic research on psychoanalysis. After making many inquiries, I had concluded that the Mt. Zion Research Group was engaging in the most interesting psychoanalytic research that was occurring anywhere in the country. After joining the group I was so inspired by Joe's work along with Hal's, that I eventually decided to resign from U. Mass. where I had been a tenured professor and a department chair. Today there isn't time to go into describing what it was that was so precious to me about my experience in the research group that I made this kind of life-altering decision. I will simply say that the richness of Joe and Hal's ideas, the importance of the theory that was being studied, control-mastery theory, and the participation of the enormously capable members of the research group combined to make for some of the most intellectually stimulating discussions in which I have ever been privileged to participate.

I believe we can now honor Joe's memory by pursuing the goals and values that imbued Joe's life. Here is my vision of two ways in which Joe can continue to evoke our strengths and talents and thereby help us grow.

l. The scientific study of psychoanalysis: Joe believed that to forsake the possibility of considering control-mastery theory scientifically is to forfeit all claims to rigor and method. We must never allow the theory to become just one of the schools that compete with others using non-rational devices, much as political parties compete among themselves. Joe was deeply committed to science and the supreme authority of evidence. Joe's passion was to discover what was true. In order for control-mastery theory to develop further and remain vital, as part of the search for truth, we need to learn from the contributions of other scientific disciplines whose domains are relevant to our enterprise, as well as from other contributors who are, like Joe, also immersed in studying the psychoanalytic process, the role of trauma in psychopathology, and in exploring object relations, and studies of the self. Joe believed that in time to come, our psychoanalytic theories would and should evolve to such a point that control-mastery theory as we know it today would hardly be recognizable.

2. The commitment to intervening therapeutically: Like Joe, we need to remain committed to a humanistic treatment approach that is case specific and gives greater priority to the therapeutic utility of our interventions than to the reification of any rule of technique. Joe believed that if we study how our patients progress or retreat in reaction to our responses, that is if we draw upon our patients as our best collaborators and supervisors, we will gain an increased understanding of who our patients are and how we can assist them in their work. We would be wise to learn from Joe's deep respect for his patients, and to the attention he gave to the adaptive meanings of their maladaptive behavior.

I am a better psychologist and psychoanalyst because Joe lived. The world is a better place because he lived. I believe over the years my patients have flourished in no small part because they have been the beneficiaries of Joe's teachings. The gifts Joe brought to us were the products of his own thought and effort. In difficulty and danger I will always know the courage he brought forth. Joe has made a huge contribution to our field and to the lives of so many of us. I suspect even some of his detractors have benefited from his thinking in unrecognized ways. For all of these reasons, in our hearts and in our memories, Joe will remain with us always.

I have many wonderful memories of times spent with Joe and Estelle. Estelle has been a devoted life partner to Joe and my family very much appreciates the many special visits we have had with you and Joe.

Let me close by quoting from the l7th century poet, George Herbert. He expressed a sentiment that I think Joe would find very congenial. He said: "Praise day at night, and life at the end".