ACADEMY FORUM - The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic ...

Dear Editor: I read with interest the movie review of “A
Dangerous Method” by Michael Blumenfield, M.D. and Susan
Blumenfield, D.S.W. with questions and answers by Thomas
Kirsch, M.D. (Academy Forum, Vol. 56, No. 2, Fall 2012).
I strongly suggest that your readers view the documentary
“My Name was Sabina Spielrein” (German with English subtitles).
This movie can be rented thru Netflix and is readily
available in video stores. The film highlights the contributions
Dr. Spielrein made to child psychoanalysis (the first of their
Letter to the Academy Forum
kind) and has many accurate and direct quotes from the diaries
and letters she left behind before going back to Russia. Anyone
interested in this subject will find the film both fascinating and
important to a continued understanding of Dr. Spielrein, Freud,
Jung and the interrelationships of these pioneer psychoanalysts.
Ronald Turco, M.D.
AAPDP Past President
Dr. Sheila Klebanow, a long-standing and
staunch Fellow of the Academy passed away
on Friday, October 19, 2012. She had been in
failing health for more than a year.
Sheila and her younger sister, Diana, were
born to a struggling, middle class, immigrant,
Russian-Jewish family in Crown Heights,
Brooklyn. Sheila’s precocious intelligence
was appreciated by her family and teachers at
an early age, and she was known throughout
her school as the girl who had not only read
all of Shakespeare before the age of 12 but
understood what she had read. She went to
Erasmus Hall High School where her intellect
was also appreciated and then to Brooklyn
College. At this point, she was interested in
history and anthropology as two possible
future careers but, while attending Harvard
in pursuit of a master’s degree in history, she
discovered psychoanalysis and, from then on,
that was her professional goal. She went to
NYU School of Medicine after completing the necessary premedical
courses and, after graduation, went on to Maimonides
Hospital in Brooklyn for her internship and then to Bellevue
Hospital for her psychiatry residency.
As soon as she could do so, she entered the New York Medical
College Course in Psychoanalysis. I came to know her during
her medical school days, and then we met again at Bellevue
and then again in psychoanalytic school. Her enthusiasm for
psychoanalysis was so great that organized the student body
at the school into the Silverberg Society, an undergraduate discussion
group focusing on case material and current literature.
Obituary – Sheila Klebanow, M.D.
by Eugene L. Lowenkopf, M.D.
After receiving her psychoanalytic certificate,
she joined the school’s post-graduate organization,
the Society of Medical Psychoanalysts,
of which she later became President,
and the Academy where she was an active
Fellow.
She became a faculty member of the New
York Medical College School of Psychoanalysis
where she taught classes, and supervised
and analyzed students. At the Academy, she
co-chaired two meetings, the winter meeting
in Cancun, in 1992, and a weekend symposium
in New York of Money and Mind.
I was fortunate enough to be her co-chair
at both meetings and was impressed by her
wisdom, her judgment and her commitment.
We subsequently expanded the Money and
Mind meeting into a book of the same title.
Throughout my friendship with Sheila, I was
aware of her high standards and strong ethical
sense, she being one of the most ethical
people I have ever met. She remained a committed and enthusiastic
Fellow of the Academy until her illness slowed her
down. I would be remiss if I did not mention her many cultural
interests: music, especially opera, the graphic arts, theater,
literature and museum and gallery showings. Most recently, on
her many trips to the Southwest, she became expert on Navajo
and other Indian arts.
She leaves behind her devoted sister, Diana, her beloved
son, David, and his marvelous wife, Linda, and their three
adored and remarkable children as well as a host of friends
who admired and loved her.
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