On May 13, an event an oral “Festschrift” was held, in which the part of the ISTFP community connected to Cornell and special guests gathered with Otto Kernberg to celebrate his retirement as Director of the Personality Disorder Institute of New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical College.
More than 90 colleagues and members of his family paid heartfelt tribute through special words dedicated by Nancy Mc Williams, John Oldham, Salman Akhtar, Mark Solms, and Stephan Doering.
Undoubtedly, it was a moment of many mixed emotions.
Many voices honouring the same man
A lot can be said about Otto, his versatility and his skills in different fields make it difficult to choose how to pay tribute to him. Not surprisingly, everyone who spoke at the Festchrift chose a similar path, by addressing not only his long career and inspiration for many mental health professionals and therapists, but also his human qualities.
The Festschrift turned out to be an event full of emotions and memories. Inevitably, everyone present started to recall how and when they met Otto and what an important part of our professional development and work he has been.
Otto is a master in building bridges between different worlds.
John Oldham
John Oldham highlighted Otto’s mastery in building bridges between different worlds, between the world of psychoanalytic theory, the world of the clinic, the world of medicine, last but not least the world of research. This is only possible through particular traits that characterize his persona, such as his determination, and the ability to visualize a clear goal to guide his work. Nancy Mc Williams mentioned how difficult it is to summarize the contributions of someone who has dedicated himself to the study of so many phenomena associated with mental health, art, politics, neuroscience, supervision, education, love and aggression. She decided to show us who Otto through a personal anecdote.
When I needed help, Otto treated me with a perfect combination of respect, consideration and honest criticism
Nancy McWilliams
It was 1991 and Nancy was writing a book as an introduction to psychoanalytic thinking. With this goal, she decided to ask Otto Kernberg, whom she had not met in person yet, for help. We all know how generous Otto is, so he did not hesitate to dedicate an hour of lunch, several pieces of advice and text recommendations to her. From there, a close relationship was forged that lasts to this day. Nancy recalls that day with various emotions such as “that lunch was the perfect combination of respect, consideration and honest criticism”.
Otto is an example of generosity of knowledge, kindness and a great capacity to forgive
Salman Akhtar
Similarly, Dr. Salman Akhtar took us back to 1978, when he met Otto for the first time at a lecture. Dr. Akhtar recalls “I did not understand a single word he said”. Hearing that, several Festschrift attendees smiled in complicity, as they surely identified with Dr Akhtar’s experience. In 1978, although he did not understand much of what Otto was talking about, he could tell that Dr. Kernberg was an eminence, and that his thinking was enticing. He decided to start reading his books. However, it was not until 5 or 6 years later that he was able to meet Otto in person, Dr. Akhtar defines the following 40 years of his career as “constant dedication”, highlighting Otto’s great generosity, referring to him as “generosity of knowledge, kindness, great capacity to forgive”.
Dr. Akhtar, with an unmatched skill of language, highlighted above all Dr. Kernberg’s ability to delicately and precisely use irony, as well as his great capacity to unite and synthesize. He said, “What could someone born Jewish in Vienna, raised in Chile, a Catholic country, living in Topeka, Kansas do? Well, he could dedicate himself to synthesizing”. And yes, Otto is a synthesizer of different thoughts, a unifier of theories, a builder, but above all a noble, generous, and very respectful man.
Not an ideal, but surely an inspiration
And so one by one they spoke and paid tribute to Otto, all agreeing on his refusal to be idealized and his attachment to reality, because the reality is that on that Friday, May 13, everyone spoke of a dedicated Otto Kernberg, humble, generous with his knowledge, able to support and make us feel that we can all go far, and ahead of his time, trusting and supporting women long before others. So much knowledge transmitted with unmatched simplicity.
Many of us are fortunate to live in times where Otto is still a great teacher giving the best he has, to witness some of his qualities and employ them in life, and why not say it, it is because of him that many of us are today in this great family that is the ISTFP.
Thank you Otto!
