Life, sex, and death

A distinguished and revered elder of the British Psycho-Analytical Society, William Gillespie is one of the few British psychoanalysts who began analytic training in Vienna in the early 1930s. Later he became well known for his pioneering work in England on the study of sexual perversion, and for his views on female sexuality, on regression in old people facing death, and on instinct theory. Characteristically prepared to support unpopular views if the evidence warrants it, he courageously described his experiences of extrasensory elements in dream interpretation in spite of his fears that his unconventionality might damage his psychoanalytic reputation. William Gillespie is celebrated not only for his scientific contributions but also for his administrative skill, integrity and tact in managing the International Psychoanalytical Association and the British Psycho-Analytical Society, where he was trusted and respected by both Melanie Klein and Anna Freud. In a biographical introduction the editor, Michael Sinason, looks back on the productive ninety years of Gillespie's life, writing movingly of his early life in China and Scotland and showing his development as a psychoanalytic thinker, organiser, administrator, husband and father. In addition, Charles Socarides discusses the innovations introduced by each of the papers in the collection and shows how Gillespie's ideas influenced his own contributions and affected the field as a whole.