Prominent psychoanalyst Salee Ann Jenkins nee Acherbach, PH.D., age 64, passed away on Aug. 12. Beloved wife of Robert, loving mother of Elizabeth (David Levin), Stephen and Rebecca and cherished grandmother of Alexander and Elijah. Salee is also survived by her father, Troy (Jean) and by her brother Alan (Denna) Achenbach. Salee was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. She was also a training and supervisor analyst and faculty member at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, where she served as co-dean from 2010-2011, chaired committees, and served on its Board of Directors. Salee was a vital part of the growth and inner workings of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. She had an unusual ability to be attuned to and deeply connected with friends, colleagues and especially patients; in her gaze you were important. While fighting an aggressive cancer for the last seven years of her life, Salee continued her commitment to psychoanalytic understanding of the human experience and translate it into a potentially universal perspective in her last paper entitled, “Trauma, Transience and Resilience: A Psychological Perspective on the Physician-Patient Relationship in Chronic Illness”. A memorial service will be held Oct. 13 at Hammerschmidt Chapel, Elmhurst College, at 1:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials me be given in her name to the Cancer Research Institute, www.cancerresearch.org/salee-jenkins.
Published in Chicago Tribune on August 20, 2013