Merton Gill, 1994 (1914-1994)

Dr. Gill was professor emeritus at the University of Illinois as well as a supervising analyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and the Chicago Center of Psychoanalysis. He achieved prominence as a teacher and theoretician who discussed fundamental matters such as the nature of psychoanalysis as a therapy and as a subject for systematic observation and research. Early in his career, Dr. Gill took part in a study of the initial interview in psychiatric practice and in his later years investigated how the analyst was perceived by the patient.

He became focused on the clinical process, psychoanalytic theory as a tool for the analyst at work. He was sensitive to the patients’ experience, the analyst and the analytic process are not what the theory dictates or the analyst believes they are, but rather what the analyst and the patient make of them. He was committed to exploring the analytic interaction.

He was the author of about 50 articles and several books, including Psychoanalysis in Transition: A Personal View (The Analytic Press), published shortly before his death.

See also The New York Times obituary.