Remembering John Forrester: Cambridge Historian of Psychoanalysis

John Forrester (1949-2015) will be remembered and honored in the psychoanalytic and psychohistorical communities for his work on the history of psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud. Sadly, he died unexpectedly on the 24^th of November, 2015, of an internal infection after undergoing stem-cell treatment therapy for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His work lives on in the form of the extensive contributions to psychoanalysis and its history as well as to Cambridge University.

Professor Forrester authored six books, Truth Games: Lies, Money, and Psychoanalysis (1997), Dispatches from the Freud Wars: Psychoanalysis and Its Passions (1997), Freud’s Women (with Lisa Appignanesi, 1992), The Seductions of Psychoanalysis: Freud, Lacan, and Derrida (1990), Language and the Origins of Psychoanalysis (1980), and Freud at Cambridge, which is yet to be published. In his September 2006 Featured Scholar Interview in Clio’s Psyche, he spoke of writing The Freudian Century, which he apparently did not complete. In addition to his books, he published over fifty papers. He held visiting chairs and fellowships in Brazil, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Among many other accolades, Forrester was the recipient of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis’ 1999 Gradiva Award for the Best General Book in the field of psychoanalysis. His ideas and legacy also carry on in the minds of his numerous students. As a professor at Cambridge University, he was known as a stimulating lecturer and inspired discussion leader who expanded the thinking of thousands of undergraduates, many of whom went on to become professors them-

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selves.

John was the son of working-class parents in London, England, who through education rose into the professional class. His education began at the prestigious Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, before he became an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge. Graduating in 1970 with honors and a B.A. focusing on the history and philosophy of science, he moved on to pursue his graduate studies on a Fulbright scholarship at Princeton University. In 1979, Forrester received his doctorate from Cambridge, and his thesis, Language and the Origins of Psychoanalysis (1980), showcased his talent for understanding psychoanalysis. Forrester was promptly appointed Senior Research Fellow at King’s College, a position he held until 1984 when he received a lectureship at the University of Cambridge.

Forrester was influenced by many seminal minds, including Michael Foucault, whose lectures he heard while studying in Paris and Vienna, but with whom he had only one conversation. However, as he noted in the May 2006 interview published in Clio’s Psyche, the most influential people in his life and career were Bob Young, one of his professors at Cambridge, and Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn, the great physicist, historian, and philosopher of science authored The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), which induced Forrester to become a philosopher of science when he was Kuhn’s student at Princeton University. Prior, especially in secondary school, he was very interested in the physical sciences, partly due to a close relationship with his chemistry teacher, Johnny Carlton. Kuhn’s work, the impetus for Forrester’s career in philosophy and history, taught Forrester to become “a particular kind of historian of science, a close reader of scientific texts,” and to develop the ability, “to get inside the head of past scientists so that you could yourself do their work.” Later, after reading Freud’s work and arming himself with the tools of psychoanalysis, he was able to do just that: see inside the minds of the scientists he studied.

John Forrester became a scholar of the psychoanalytic movement. He eventually devoted himself to the study of Sigmund Freud. He was the co-founder of the Cambridge Group for the History of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Allied Sciences, as well as the Psychoanalytic Forum. Forrester served on the editorial board of several publications, including History of Psychiatry and Psychoanalytic Studies. He edited Psychoanalysis and History from 2004-2014.

It is difficult to fully capture John Forester “the man.” He was an enthusiastic individual who was at home in America and France (and with the French language). He was passionate in so many ways, including about books, fine wines, food, music, meeting new people, psychoanalysis, and the roses in his garden. His enormous curiosity and retentive memory led his wife Lisa to call him “my own Wikipedia.” This profes-

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sor embraced the messiness of life, enthusiastically working to make sense out of the patterns he could identify. He had little toleration for bureaucracies that did not serve people, though he could work effectively within them, as when he served as chair of the Department of History and the Philosophy of Science at Cambridge. One of his greatest dreams was to merge the genius of Freud and Foucault. He was also an unapologetic smoker.

At Forrester’s deathbed were his wife, Lisa Appignanesi, his stepson Josh Appignanesi (and wife Devorah), his adored and doted on grandson Manny, and his daughter Katrina (along with her partner Jamie Martin). The John Forrester Memorial Award commemorates his life and carries on his work.

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