The Psychiatrist/Psychoanalyst as Psychohistorian: Sander Breiner

The death of Sander Breiner on August 28, 2012 at age 87 was a serious loss for his family, his patients, psychiatry, and the membership of the Psychohistory Forum. Sandy was a gentleman of the old school who faced death as he faced life: with curiosity, courage, optimism, and intelligence. Eleven days before his passing, he called to thank me for Clio’s Psyche and for working hard to publish his articles, noting that more often than not his submissions were rejected by the editors or the anonymous referees. The distance between his home and office in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and our meetings in Manhattan was too great for him to attend our Forum Work-In-Progress sessions. However, at least once or twice every year, Dr. Breiner would respond to the presenter’s paper with his commentary to be read at the meeting or forwarded to the presenter. Fortunately, we were able to publish his submissions on the psychology of aging, death and dying, health care, the Holocaust, punishment, and much else. He loved to contribute to scholarship and was quite proud of his book, Slaughter of the Innocents: Child Abuse through The Ages and Today (Plenum Press, 1990), as well as of the hundreds of articles he published.

Courage, curiosity, determination, an indefatigable humor, and optimism were among Breiner’s outstanding characteristics. For 14 years, he lived with cancer until the fight simply became too hopeless in August, when his doctor said that life’s end was imminent within the month. Ill health was something he had always met head-on. A bad back and the cancer meant that he had to make adjustments in his life, which he did quite readily. When he could not

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bend as he had previously, he had the beds of his gardens raised so he could continue gardening. Since climbing mountains was no longer something his body could take, he had himself helicoptered to climb the plateaus of beautiful mountains. In a telephone conversation, in which I complained that I was behind schedule because of problems with severe sciatica limiting my time sitting at the computer, Sandy shared some of his adjustments to the realities of declining health while aging.

Medical students at Michigan State University and elsewhere benefitted from Dr. Breiner’s knowledge. Having psychoanalysts as teachers is an enormously important thing for medical students, because in their highly competitive process of being accepted into the profession, feelings are so often denied, suppressed, and repressed, yet it is precisely the sensitivity of doctors to the feelings of their patients which is curative. He was a Founding Member of the Psychohistory Forum and also a member of a large number of professional organizations in a variety of fields.

On July 12, 1925, Sander J. Breiner’s life began in Fiume on the Dalmatian coast while his American parents were traveling in Europe. He grew up in Chicago, and graduated from the University of Illinois and then the Chicago Medical School prior to training as a psychoanalyst. In World War II, he served in the U.S. Army. We wish to express our condolences to his wife Beatrice and his family.

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