E Mark Stern Remembered

In Memorium:  Mentor, Friend, “Father” Mark Stern

(Excerpted from eulogy delivered by Kirk Schneider at St. Paul’s of the Apostles Chapel, New York City)

There are so many things I could express about my dear friend, mentor, paternal inspiration, Mark.  I could express to you my sentiments about his complex, beautiful mind that wove complex, beautiful, if wildly wonderful elliptical, prose. His wondrous stories of the early days of psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology—the wild people he and Virginia knew intimately, the life of being awake, alive, adventurous,  of how we were instantly attracted to/appreciative of one another—the bond somewhat enigmatic at first yet quickly realized in each other’s shared skepticism/cynicism about our profession, the world of politics, and the world of Spirit—and yet equally, passionately I could convey our shared wonder, marvel, and indeed awe toward each of those and more, so much more.  I could share with you my admiration of how deeply Mark cared for those whom he loved,  such as his wife Virginia and his family.  I can’t count the number of times he spoke so admiringly of you and how much he relished seeing Virginia blossom in the local and regional political scene.  (He was SO proud of you, Virginia—and I saw how he so enjoyed those raucous party meetings and debates). And finally, I could share with you our delight on meeting at APA and the Div. 32 Conf some twenty plus years ago, the visits to Bare Farm (where Mark and Virginia lived)—the Hudson River painter Fredrick Church's Olana house, Bard college, Vasser College (and our radio gig on Awakening to Awe), the Rubin museum, Silvia’s Soul Food Restaurant in Harlem, Columbia, Mark’s keynote and last visit, including a wonderful accompaniment to the local SF play “Under the Lintel Tree” starring his friend and neighbor David Straithorn, being regaled by a flood of stories and memories of Mark’s kaleidoscopic  past.  But I think Mark’s vibrant, eloquent words say it all:

From an email to a close colleague on our Division listserve: 

“I guess I was born to take the pathway of the darker soul of the night.  Such seemed to be an almost basic requirement for the depth psychologists of the mid-20th century.  My plight was to listen as much to the doleful and misty of my patients and myself.  Dreams, symbols, metaphors, murky associations a sense of unconscious unity with all—these were foundational to a psychology of the soul.”

On his very personal and therapeutic experience of awe from our book Awakening to Awe:  

“Awe is in one special sense, the excitement of participation.  Translated into process, awe befriends depth psychotherapy—not by promising to remove all pain, rather by addressing (with reverence) the pained person; not by eradicating his conflict.  Instead by paying attention to the role of friction and combat as the exile’s resolve to cross the desert;  not by encouraging the positive, more by paying attention to who one is…”

~ Kirk Schneider, March 22, 2014, New York City

EHI warmly remembers Dr E Mark Stern and recognizes his extensive personal and professional contributions in advancing humanism in psychology and psychological therapies. He taught and touched many people in his career and life who shall go on to continue expanding the field of humanistic therapies. He will be greatly missed.

EHI was very honored to have the late Dr E Mark Stern as Opening Keynote Speaker for the EHI:7 Annual Conference this last November. His address is shared here as a PDF. Dr Stern also recently contributed the foreword to the 2nd Edition of The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology.

You can read a recent article by Dr Stern, Inflections, from the Society of Humanistic Psychology Newsletter (October 2009) where he "Examine(s) the vision of humanistic psychology with a brief history of Jan Smuts, Victor Frankl and Jacob Levi Moreno and their missions."

Also read about Dr Stern in the History of APA DIV 32 [PDF] by Christopher M. Aanstoos, Ilene Serlin, Thomas Greening.

E. Mark Stern was 2014 recipient for Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Humanistic Psychology given to an individual in recognition of distinguished lifetime contributions to humanistic psychology.

Dr E Mark Stern's bio on Wikipedia.

Related Posts:

Dr E.Mark Stern's Keynote Address at EHI7 2013 Annual Conference [PDF]

E-H Institute Proudly Welcomes: E. Mark Stern, PhD as Opening Keynote Speaker for EHI:7

EHI and The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology

Dr E.Mark Stern's Keynote Address at EHI7 2013 Annual Conference [PDF]

EHI had it's 7th Annual Conference this last November and we are delighted to be able to share Dr Stern's Keynote Address with you.
Here is an excerpt from Dr. Stern's Keynote:

"Dear people-WELCOME- as I stand before you I most want to establish my footing.

Our related souls may well commix.

So to begin, years and years back and as much as my current 84th year I necessarily continue to reckon with why I persist in being drawn to psychotherapy(or at least the therapy that I have been suited to do.) My format of psychotherapy is not a procedure that needfully curers but more, a process of nurturing and connecting with a core of where the person is, and where they either except the sense of who I am as well as seriously wanted to appear, to where I want to go. So it is accepting double- or as Otto Rank (1941) points out, "the shadow (who is) his mysterious double as spiritual yet real being" (p.71).

The novelist Lawrence Durell (1949) entwines with my culture when he notes that "Psychoanalysis has been in danger of devoting itself only to the tailoring of behavior, too heavily weighted down by the superstructure of clinical terminology, it has been in danger of thinking in terms of medical entities rather than patients." (p.ix)"

~Dr E. Mark Stern, EHI7 Keynote Address, November 15, 2013

Download the full Dr E. Mark Stern's EHI7 Keynote Address here. -[PDF]

EHI7 Conference Update Keynote Speaker Announcement Email

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Join us on November 15/16, 2013 2-days of Speakers and Sessions in San Francisco, CA at EHI:7.

2 days of Speakers & Sessions with opening keynote speaker, Dr. E. Mark Stern. Speakers & sessions include Kirk Schneider, Orah Krug, Bob Edelstein, Tom Greening and Lisa Vallejos.

REGISTER TODAY!

E-H Institute Proudly Welcomes: E. Mark Stern, PhD as Opening Keynote Speaker for EHI:7

Dr. Stern's Keynote Presentation

"Grow Old Along With Me: Psychotherapist Looks at His Own Aging"

"Elders, defying their forgetfulness, become the tellers of passionate tales… Alternative realities are a means to soul making." Dr. Stern states that he has come to appreciate the unique poetics of a tousled mind and that pain and suffering, too, can move us into an unfamiliar paradigm. He states that "through an acceptance of the vitality of dying, we once again know the world."

EHI is excited to have Dr. Stern present the opening keynote at this year's upcoming EHI Conference on November 15/16, 2013. The EHI Conference is two days of speakers and sessions held at EHI/AgeSong on Laguna Street in San Francisco.

Speakers and sessions are being highlighted here on our blog. Read more about the EHI7 sessions here.

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Dr. E. Mark Stern earned his EdD from Columbia University in 1955 and completed post-doctoral work at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London and thereafter worked at The Maudsley Hospital from 1955-1956. In 1962, Mark earned a certificate in psychoanalysis from the Training Institute of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis in New York City and has been in private practice since 1956. Additionally, Dr. Stern was chief psychologist of the New York Clinic for Mental Health from 1960-1964, as well as a consultant in psychology for The George W. Henry Foundation from 1956-1962.
From 1964-the present, Mark has served as assistant, full professor, and now professor emeritus of the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Iona College, New Rochelle, New York and formerly adjunct professor of psychology at Seton Hall University and Fordham University. He was also a member of the teaching faculty for the American Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis as well as the Training Institute for Mental Health Practitioners, both in New York, and in 1994 was a visiting professor of psychology at the Catholic University of Australia. Dr. Stern served as editor of The Journal of Pastoral Counseling from 1967-1976, of VOICES: The Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists from 1976-1988, and was the founding editor of The Psychotherapy Patient Monograph Series from 1988-2003. Mark has concentrated most of his authorship to books, chapters, articles and projects in the sometimes convergence of religious belief and what is central to the practice of psychotherapy.
Dr. Stern has served American Psychological Association(APA)in leadership positions as president of Division 36, (Psychology of Religion) and 32 (Humanistic Psychology). Additionally, he served four terms on the APA Council of Representatives and was a member of the Fellows Chair Committee for Division 32. Mark is currently a fellow of APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology), 29 (Psychotherapy and Substance Abuse), 32 (Humanistic Psychology), 36 (Psychology of Religion), and 52 (International Psychology); a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science; and a diplomat in clinical psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. He is also a member of the Dutchess County (NY) Mental Hygiene Board, a trustee of the Stanford Free Library, and the finance chair of the Dutchess County Democratic Committee.