Sad news

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Craig Piers

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Apr 16, 2025, 6:06:42 PMApr 16
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Dear friends,

I'm writing with sad news. I learned today that David Shapiro has died. He was 99 years old.  He was also among the members invited to the very first meeting of RKSG.  And, of course, he is well known to many of you. 

David meant a great deal to me and I will miss our talks. That's all for now. 

Warm regards,
Craig



Danielle Knafo

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Apr 16, 2025, 6:17:53 PMApr 16
to Craig Piers, Rapaport-Klein Study Group
I’m sorry to hear this, Craig. I know David meant a lot to you. And his writings were influential to many.
My condolences to you and to his family and all who were dear to him. 
Danielle 
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 16, 2025, at 6:06 PM, Craig Piers <cpi...@williams.edu> wrote:


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Blinder, Barton

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Apr 16, 2025, 6:33:58 PMApr 16
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Sad news for all who benefitted from his contributions




Bart

Barton J Blinder MD PhD

Clinical Professor

Dept Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Samueli College of Health Sciences
University of California Irvine

Dept Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
School of Medicine
University of Washington

Senior Faculty( Adult/ Child)
Chair Research Committee 
New Center for Psychoanalysis
Los Angeles

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Deborah L Browning

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Apr 16, 2025, 8:44:52 PMApr 16
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Dave and my husband became good friends when they were both at Riggs in the late 50s.  Dave passed on his analyst Helmut Kaiser to Jean who liked him as well as any analyst he ever had. When Dave and Gerry moved back east in the 80s (?), it was fun to watch the two men pick up where they left off, always able to make the other laugh. Those were good years.  I was so pleased to see David when he came to introduce me at the R/K meetings in 2019. We had lost touch after Jean died; but he reached out to me again last summer and I went over to Monterey to visit with him.  He was frail, but his mind was still good.  He had just gotten something published! He said he was surprised to still be alive.  He had had a heart-attack when he was fairly young, back in California, after which time, Gerry changed his diet and he changed his lifestyle to be more balanced between patient care and writing.  

He reached out to me again in February, but I was in NYC all winter, so missed seeing him.  His writing was and is still so helpful to me in the way I think about things, and he had the most delightful, ironic sense of humor.  The loss of David is indeed sad, and also, painfully somewhat like an end of an era.

My condolences to you, Craig, who I think knew him better than any of our generation.  And to Julie and Benji.   best,  Debbie

Holly Levenkron

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Apr 16, 2025, 11:31:17 PMApr 16
to deborah....@nyu.edu, Craig Piers, Rapaport-Klein Study Group
Sending my condolences to all those who were touched by David Shapiro’s life and loss. I didn’t know him, though with great fondness I recall his little book “Neurotic Styles”.  In the beginning of my training, in 1985, it helped me understand the troubled human being in every day experience, and without saying all that much.  I could recognize what he was talking about! Which was such a gift. Just recently and perhaps  coincidentally, I found a very old yellowed, soft cover of that book on my bookcase. I flipped through it with fondness especially as I had recently suggested it to a supervisee who is beginning her training. Somehow, it seems essential to have this little book while plowing through all of the new resources on diagnosis. I’m sorry I didn’t know David more than through his writing, but that has helped me offer sincere condolences. 
Warmly, Holly Levenkron

holly levenkron 
lcsw, licsw; psychotherapy; psychoanalysts; couples; supervision; 

On Apr 16, 2025, at 8:44 PM, Deborah L Browning <deborah....@nyu.edu> wrote:



rebecca curtis

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Apr 17, 2025, 8:49:02 AMApr 17
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David was a dear soul.  This is very sad news.  He was a great listener.  He will be deeply missed.


 
Sincerely,
Rebecca Coleman Curtis, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita of Psychology, Adelphi University & Faculty, WA White Institute

Selected publications:

Editor (Belonging Through  Psychoanalytic Lens).  New York: Routledge.

Editor (with B. Willock & I. Sapountzis) (2019). On Knowing and Being Known.  New York: Routledge.
 
Author "Desire, Self, Mind and the Psychotherapies:  Unifying Psychological Science and Psychoanalysis" Jason Aronson   Goethe Award Finalist 2009, William James Award Nominee
 
 917-836-1239, 3613 Bayview Rd., Coconut Grove, Miami, Fl 33133.  I am reachable on WhatsApp and SKYPE.

I am on a large number of lists that send out large quantities of emails each day, so I MAY MISS YOUR EMAIL.  Email me again or call.



Paul Wachtel

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Apr 17, 2025, 9:16:35 AMApr 17
to Holly Levenkron, deborah....@nyu.edu, Craig Piers, Rapaport-Klein Study Group
Very, very sad news..  David was a pathbreaking thinker, who took what we knew (or thought we knew) and transformed it into something new and fresh.  In a review of one of his books,I described him as a "phenomenological virtuoso," and his articulations of how psychoanalysis could be seen as a deepening of our understanding of consciousness has transformed, at least for me, what it means to talk about the unconscious.,

David was one of a kind.  He is, sadly, now gone, but, if we are wise, his influence will live on.

On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM Holly Levenkron <hollyle...@gmail.com> wrote:
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CUNY Distinguished Professor
Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology
City College of CUNY
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Philip Wong

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Apr 17, 2025, 11:40:17 AMApr 17
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I had the privilege of working closely with David for nearly a decade when we were colleagues on the faculty of the New School.  As a young-ish new faculty hire, trained fairly strictly in the ego psychological tradition, David implored me to avoid "deep diving" and meta-theoretical conceptualizations of drive and development. His close attention to clinical process and the patient's way of being, and his acute awareness of a person's tendency toward self-deception, have been influential with me and with many in the field.  I will miss him, although I'm confident his perspectives will remain salient for generations to come.



Philip S. Wong, Ph.D. (he/him)
Professor of Psychology
Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program
Long Island University - Brooklyn
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Cc: deborah....@nyu.edu <deborah....@nyu.edu>; Craig Piers <cpi...@williams.edu>; Rapaport-Klein Study Group <rapapor...@googlegroups.com>
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Craig Piers

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Apr 20, 2025, 7:10:13 AMApr 20
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I agree with so much of what has been written.  David was extraordinary in many ways - as a teacher, mentor, therapist, theorist, writer, friend - and l feel so grateful to have had the privilege to learn and work with him.  

There is much more that can be said, but for now I wanted to share a couple of things.  

First, this past November Jane Tillman (RKSG member and Director of Erikson Institute) and Alison Lotto (Riggs librarian/archivist) at Riggs asked me to interview David for inclusion in Riggs archive.  Fortunately, we met with David and completed the interview in February.  I'm so glad we did and I'm pleased to be able to share it with all of you.  Alison was present for the interview and asked a couple important questions toward the end.  We were also fortunate that David's son, Ben, a documentary filmmaker and journalism professor at Columbia, agreed to record (video and audio) the interview - the quality is outstanding.  Here is a link.


And second, just in case you've not read it, I'm also attaching the front matter of the book David and I did together -- which included chapters by several RKSG members --because it includes the autobiography he wrote for the book.  It's a nice complement to the interview.

Stay well and stay in touch.
Craig

Front matter--Piers--Shapiro Volume--2011.pdf
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