Click Here to Read: Reading List for Theory III by Drs. Martin Blum and Jonathan Easton.
Click Here to Read: Martin Blum and Jonathon Easton Class 2: Freud. Theory Ii: Beyond Wish and Defense Class 2: The Experiential Grounds of the Theory of Narcissism: Narcissistic Themes in Freud’s Self-analysis.
Click Here to Read: Table of Contents for 2-10 of the Theory Ii Classes by Drs. Martin Blum and Jonathan Easton.
Martin Blum.
Click Here to Read: Course Objectives for the Theory II by Drs. Martin Blum and Jonathan Easton.
Martin Blum, M.D., who died at age 81 in December 2013, was a psychoanalyst on the faculty of Institute for Psychoanalytic Education affiliated with NYU School of Medicine (formerly NYU Psychoanalytic Institute, formerly Downstate Psychoanalytic Institute). He was a highly sophisticated thinker on analytic subjects whose deep intellect was not known to the wider field psychoanalysis. Martin managed to defeat, in my opinion, efforts made by myself and other appreciators of his before me, to bring his thinking to the attention of a wider audience. Instead he was known mainly to his students at the analytic institute and at the department of psychiatry at Hillside Hospital, where he spent a great deal of his professional life. He was admired by some, but others kept their distance from him due to the quirks of personality that could make interacting with him difficult.
For quite a few years I had the privilege to be Martin’s co-teacher in the 10-session class on analytic theory he taught to analytic candidates at IPE. It is the class handouts he prepared for that course that are being made available here on psychoanalysis.net. After the first year being his co-teacher I told Martin it was obvious that these handouts could be turned into a terrific book, and told him he really should do that. “Why should I?” was his response. I suggested that the following year we audio record the course and create a book out of an edited transcript of the course combined with the class handouts. Martin knew this was the model used by Sidney Tarachow for his book on psychotherapy, based on seminars with psychiatry residents at Hillside. I made it clear I would be an active collaborator on the project. Martin’s face lit up, and he said, “OK, I’ll get a digital recorder!” The following year we recorded the class and I did some work editing a transcript. Though he insisted we keep the project secret, he was at first enthusiastic about it, telling me he believed we might “make it to Bellagio,” referring to the Rockefeller Foundation grant that allows authors to finish a work in progress on the shore of Lake Como. In the end, however, Martin each year wanted to record the entire course yet again before proceeding. His ambivalence over producing the book became clear, though as a side effect we do now have quite few years of audio recordings of his course. At this point, in his absence and with the permission of his estate, rather than to obtain and edit transcripts of the audio recordings of those classes, I believe a better plan would be to make those recordings available online someday, in addition to these class handouts now being made available here. That will require some work, as it would be necessary to obtain permission from the former analytic candidates whose voices appear in those recordings, or to delete recorded comments made by persons other than Dr. Blum and re-record them with a generic voice. Anyone who might be interested to participate in that project should contact me. I may never have the time to do it myself.
I hope this material being released on psychoanalysis.net is as valuable to others as it has been to me. I thank Arnold Richards for his interest in publishing it here.
Jonathan Easton, M.D.