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Joe's creative work from its beginning has the clarity and simplicity that leaves the reader with the surprised delight of discovery-"of course that is true.", then afterwards wondering "why wasn't that clear before?"

An etching of a Rabbi completed when Joe was around 8, living in Cincinnati has the same combination of beauty and simple profundity characteristic of all Joe's work. His article written while at Harvard, "Thorstein Veblen Revisited, or Counter-Snobbey" has the sparkling originality and humor characteristic of Joe's thought and conversations. Joe loved to have fun. His article "The Analysis of Formal Artistic Beauty" was done when he was a Resident. Here, a young Joe defined complex issues simply and convincingly. Ernst Kris wrote that Joe's article was a breakthrough and a bridge between psychoanalytic theory and art criticism.

Joe worked on the concept of crying at the happy ending while at Mt.Zion. His theory was that painful affects could be tolerated when a happy ending made it safe to experience them. His article, 1952, "Crying at the Happy Ending" was an extension of his thoughts about emotional safety as the condition for the emergence into a patient's consciousness of previously warded off feelings and ideas. He saw the therapeutic relationship as a collaboration between the patient's unconscious wish to master traumatic states, experiences, and relationship and the therapist's ability to provide such a safe setting for this to occur, by the analyst's attitude, actions and interpretations.

An example of Joe's thinking about "testing" might be the following: a patient rather than remembering the importance of rejection in his life will try to provoke a rejection by the analyst that would reconfirm his pathogenic belief that he is a worthless person. The patient unconsciously hopes that the analyst will pass the test and disconfirm his idea that he is worthless and deserves rejection by neither rejecting him nor accepting rejection from him. If the patient experiences that he will not be rejected, he will feel safe to bring forth memories of earlier painful rejections that then can be dealt with by the usual psychoanalytic techniques.

Joe's major work, his analysis of the therapeutic process, developed not from theoretical considerations but from painstaking study of his process notes of his work with several of his patients. He spent ten years on this project, quite alone, reading and re-reading his process notes before he began to formulate his theory of the therapeutic process. Later, he enlisted his colleagues, most importantly of all, Hal Sampson, and with Hal's help began the study group from which their highly original research method grew. Joe said that without Hal's leadership the research and study group would not have happened.

Joe was grateful to and proud of the work of the many members of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and Society who advanced his studies. He was thrilled when a research member from Uhlm, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm or the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group would come up with a finding that confirmed his ideas or raised questions and new problems for research by his students. His work is of great interest in Europe and his books have been translated into German, Swedish, French, Russian and Italian.

Joe had many talents. He was educated as a scientist as well as in the liberal arts. He was a strong mathematician. He was also an accomplished draftsman of the human figure as well as a remarkable painter. While still in Cincinatti he co-wrote a hill-billy song, "A Coffin Built for Two" that was recorded in Nashville. He was an accomplished writer crediting his old friend, the poet, Kenneth Koch, for his simple, direct style.

Joe was a challenger. He encouraged his students to question authority, his own ideas as well as the theories of others. Only the truth of an idea was important to Joe. He was certain that before long his work would be replaced by better insights into the therapeutic process. He believed passionately that it will take rigorous research to solve the vexing problems of authenticity that confronts psychoanalytic theories today.

Joe had a special gift of friendship. He remained in close contact with grammar school friends throughout his life. He was witty, a tease, irreverent, but very thoughtful of the feelings of others. A funny, but typical story from Joe's youth was told recently by one of his high school buddies. Joe and his friends invented a school in a non-existent rural Ohio town. He reported their victories in the high school athletic leagues to the Cincinnati Inquirer which dutifully reported the proceedings as well as the invented players' life stories. The prank went undiscovered for several seasons until the New York Times announced "a non-existent team with invented players from an unknown school and city in Ohio wins a state wide tournament".

In his mid-years, Joe was often a spokesman for and a teacher of psychoanalysis to many gifted people whom he knew well. At his request several of them participated in seminars at our institute sponsored by the education committee of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and Society. He discussed his views about psychoanalysis with the historian of scientific ideas, Thomas Kuhn, a close friend from his Harvard days; the historian of Freud's Vienna, Carl Schorske, the philosophers Marcia and Stanley Cavell and the poet, and long time friend, Kenneth Koch and his New York circle of artists and writers. Joe wrote the only article published by Scientific American by an analyst about psychoanalysis. He was always a positive disseminator of ideas about psychoanalysis and control-mastery theory.

Joe enjoyed people discussing his work. In fact he liked dissent and scientific argument. He was not disturbed by criticism. When complimented for this openness to challenge, (something many creative people find hard to take) he replied that his critics are valued colleagues from whom he has learned much, and he appreciates their thinking about his ideas. To feel other than appreciative would be ungrateful of him for their interest in his work.

Optimism, even a kind of playfulness, certainly the desire to help, and the unshakable conviction in the strength of human beings was central to Joe's personality and philosophy, and very likely important to his therapeutic gifts. He frequently said "Don't ever count-out the human being. He can bounce back and surprise you." He was always helpful to his patients, friends and students. He was a rock, a source of strength for many.

Joe was proud of his family: Estelle, his wonderful wife, a psychoanalyst and an artist, and an intellectual companion of fifty years; his children: John, a neuroscientist, professor and physician and a new father; Martha, a professor of botany, mother of two girls; Elizabeth, an artist (a third generation artist, Joe's mother was an accomplished artist) and a librarian. They miss him dreadfully, but feel grateful for the years they had together.

My daughter, Anne, tells me when I am sad, "Dad, don't complain, you had a wonderful friend for fifty-four years."

Stan Steinberg

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• For Jessica Broitman's remarks at the memorial, click here.
• For Paul Ransohoff's remarks at the memorial, click here.
• For Martha Walter's remarks at the memorial, click here.
• For Michael Bader's remarks at the memorial, click here.
• For Lisby Mayer's remarks at the memorial, click here.
• For Suzanne Gassner's remarks at the memorial, click here.
• For a Rembrance from Neil P. Young, click here.
• For a Rembrance from Isa Sammet and Joseph Brockmann, click here.