Otto Will and the Artistry of Relationship: More Simply Human than Otherwise

Abstract

Otto Will was one of the most creative psychotherapists of the twentieth century, yet his work is relatively unknown today. This paper strives to transmit his legacy. During his career at Chestnut Lodge and Austen Riggs, Will taught by example, inspiring others to engage in long-term, psychoanalytic treatment of psychosis. Deriving inspiration from his analysts, Harry Stack Sullivan and Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, he explored the healing power of human attachment and relatedness. As a therapist, he presented himself in all of his flawed humanity, admitting mistakes, and acknowledging limitations. Such human responsiveness engendered similarly human responses in the other. Through cultivating attachment and forging vital relationship with severely traumatized patients, he manifested a unique gift for connection. I draw upon my own experience as his student and colleague of twenty-three years to recount his personal and professional history and to examine his unique contributions to technique. Clinical examples and stories demonstrate Will’s singular “artistry of relationship.”

Keywords:

• attachment
• psychotherapy of psychosis
• therapeutic relationship
• interpersonal
• Harry Stack Sullivan
• Frieda Fromm-Reichmann

Notes

1 I am using the familiar “Otto” throughout this text due to my longstanding personal relationship with him.

2 Otto’s reflections here echo Fairbairn’s (1952) conception of the child’s early internalization of, and adhesion to, “bad objects”.

3 While Otto clearly encountered Sullivan’s acerbic comments, I believe that his predominant experience of his analyst was that of respect, tenderness, and holding (Winnicott, 1962).

4 The cold wet sheet pack is a full body wrap, consisting of a cold wet sheet wrapped closely around a supine patient with layers of dry blankets on the outside. In general, it produces a calming and mildly sedating effect. It was commonly utilized with agitated patients at the Lodge.

5 Dr. William Richardson, S. J. – Director of Research at Riggs and a graduate of the William Alanson White Institute.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James E. Gorney

James E. Gorney, Ph.D., received his Doctorate from the University of Chicago. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship and went on to serve on the supervisory staff at the Austen Riggs Center. He is a graduate of the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Institute and has taught at New York Hospital-Cornell, Duquesne, and the University of Tennessee. He is the author of various papers on innovations in psychoanalytic technique, Winnicott, Lacan, and self-psychology. He is the recipient of the Hans Strupp award for excellence in psychoanalytic education and the ISPS-US Bertram Karon Memorial award for psychoanalytic writing. Dr Gorney is currently in private practice in Knoxville, Tennessee.