In Memoriam: Charles Gouaux (1937-2006)

At age seventy Victor Charles Gouaux died on June 25, 2006 of cancer of his large intestine, which had metastasized to his liver and vital parts of his body. After his diagnosis in April 2004, he fought a determined and heroic battle for health and life prior to his death at home. As a psychologist in private practice in St. Louis for thirty-five years, he spent the month of April preparing his patients for the termination of their treatment by him. In the process they learned quite a lot about death and dying. Having freed himself from his responsibility for their treatment Charles felt revitalized until his final days.

Charles Gouaux was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana on January 22, 1936 as the oldest of two sons, with an older sister who died at birth a year or so earlier. His father was an accountant and his mother a schoolteacher. After a brief career as an engineer, he enrolled in the Perkins School of Theology where he discovered the pleasures of intellectual pursuits and writing. Following graduation, he attended the University of Texas in Austin where he studied psychology and personality theory, earning a degree in social psychology. Gouaux also did postdoctoral work in clinical psychology at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. After teaching personality theory at the University of Missouri in St. Louis and working at the university’s counseling center, he bought a practice as an individual and group psychotherapist in 1972. Among the psychological thinkers influencing him were Carl Rogers, Harold Searles,

D.W. Winnicott, and Heinz Kohut. He was an avid reader of history, religion, and psychology who left a large library.

Many years ago he came to psychohistory as a member of the International Psychohistorical Association (IPA) and then joined the Psychohistory Forum. He presented a number of times at the IPA, most notably on fathers and methodology. He authored, or coauthored about fifteen articles. His widow is working with this editor and an editorial associate to see if some of his unpublished manuscripts on General “Fighting Joe” Hooker, fairy tales (Perrault, the Grimm brothers, etc.), projective identification, defensive anger, and other subjects might be published in these pages or elsewhere.

Dr. Gouaux served his country as a captain in the Air Force, stationed in Nebraska and the Azores, prior to his discharge in 1960. He requested burial in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery for War Veterans. Charles Gouaux is survived by Sue, his wife of thirty-nine years, their son and daughter who are educators, and a son from a brief, earlier marriage. Sue was a teacher who became a certified social worker before establishing her own practice in 1982 in the same suite with him. Condolences may be e-mailed to her at smgouaux@gmail.com.

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