Memorial, Dr. Arnold Rachman, PhD (May 27, 1935 – September 15, 2024)

Those of us who practice certain professions that are strongly driven by personal passion -such as psychoanalysis- look for role models: admirable figures who represent the Ego ideal and who function as an intrapsychic guide. We look for an intellectual compass that is also invested with emotion.

When Arnold Wm. Rachman trained to become a psychoanalyst in the 1960s, unlike most of us, he did not identify with Sigmund Freud. He admired him, of course, but Freud represented a kind of authoritarian father figure that Rachman did not want as a role model. Very early on, Rachman developed an approach to psychoanalysis from warmness, empathy, receptivity, and responsiveness. Qualities that, at the time, he did not find in mainstream psychoanalysis and that, in fact, made him feel marginalized.

This changed in 1976 when he read an article in the American Journal in which Ferenczi was mentioned as the pioneer of active interventions in psychoanalysis. He immediately ran to the library of the New York Institute to find the three volumes of Contributions (First, Further and Final…). For Rachman, Ferenczi’s thinking was a revelation. He finally found a psychoanalytic hero: an unsung pioneer who was also a clinical genius. From then on, Rachman took on the mission of bringing Ferenczi out of oblivion and giving him back his rightful place in the history of psychoanalysis. His enthusiasm was inexhaustible, and his passion was unique, to the point of being radical. For his mission could only be achieved through a radical stance! Before long he joined others who, through their own experiences, had the same Ferenczian mission and enthusiasm. From that common goal, they all contributed energetically to the creation of the “Ferenczi Renaissance“.

Rachman’s contributions to the movement were many: the concept of “Totschweigen” (in collaboration with Esther Menaker), to designate the way in which the psychoanalytic community “let Ferenczi die” by not talking about him; the theoretical elaboration of the “rule of empathy” introduced by Ferenczi in 1928; the extension of the psychodynamic description of “Confusion of Tongues Trauma”; and his vast research on the life and work of Elizabeth Severn.

He wrote dozens of books, among which stand out: Sándor Ferenczi: The Psychotherapist of Tenderness and Passion (1997), Elizabeth Severn: The “Evil Genius” of Psychoanalysis (2018), Psychoanalysis and Society’s Neglect of Sexual Abuse of Children, Youth and Adults: Re-addressing Freud’s original Theory of Sexual Abuse and Trauma (2022), with which he won the “Sándor Ferenczi Award” in March 2024 by the International Society for The Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). Recently he published Ferenczi’s Confusion of Tongues Theory of Trauma in collaboration with Clara Mucci (2023). He wrote hundreds of articles and hundreds more that he left unpublished and that his friends will do everything possible for them to see the light of day.

Rachman and I met for the first time last year in Budapest at the 150th anniversary of Ferenczi’s birth. His generous character was noticeable from miles away. That was the time he donated to Ferenczi’s house two original photographs (one of Ferenczi and one of Severn) and a book owned by Ferenczi, with Ferenczi’s signature and marginal notes. Judit Meszaros received the items in the middle of the house’s garden, and everything was a big celebration full of joy. That was Arnold: someone who gave and made the people around him enjoy life more.

I was 34 years old, and he was 88, and from the very beginning he treated me as an equal. It would have been easy for him to put himself in the position of master and me in the position of pupil, but he didn’t. And, although I consider myself his apprentice, he never treated me as such. He proposed me to form a Sándor Ferenczi Study Group in Mexico, being the two of us co-founders. We had a monthly session with members from all over México and, for me, that was the beginning of the “Ferenczi Renaissance” in my own land. He invited me to collaborate with him as colleagues, based on mutuality and total openness. And so, we worked together for a year… the last year of his life. I understood why he did not identify with Freud and why he sometimes even disowned him. He didn’t like being “The Man” and he didn’t want it either. He was happy to find people to share his mission with, and I was incredibly fortunate to meet him and to work side by side with him.

Arnold passed away on Sunday morning, September 15. I will always miss him, and he will always live with me as an introjected good object: a role model, an admirable figure, a psychoanalytic hero.

Uriel García Varela, PhD.
Mexico, September 16, 2024