The Board of Directors of IARPP mourns the passing of Lewis Aron.
Lew was the founding president of IARPP and a leading contributor to our organization and the development and expansion of Relational Psychoanalysis throughout the world. He was a uniquely gifted teacher, writer, editor and a loving, nurturing presence in our community and within contemporary psychoanalysis.
Among his many accomplishments and professional contributions, Lew was the Director of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis for over 20 years—until his passing, former President of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association, and well-known for teaching hundreds of colleagues per week in his highly sought-after study and reading groups. He was a prolific writer and his 1996 volume A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis and his (1999) edited volume with Stephen Mitchell, Relational Psychoanalysis: The Emergence of a Tradition are considered two of the essential texts in contemporary American psychoanalysis. He co-edited Routledge’s Relational Perspectives Book Series, and with Stephen Mitchell and other colleagues, was one of the founders of Psychoanalytic Dialogues: The International Journal of Relational Perspectives. He was also an avid guitar player and a founding member of the rock band Sig, which performed at numerous IARPP conferences and other events.
