As I read that Mark and Jerry had both died recently, I felt a wave that I know well as grief move through my stomach. Although I was not extremely close to either of them, I was a long time professional acquaintance of both. I placed them in apposition as I thought of their substantial co-creation, The Psychotherapy Patient. Identifying various kinds of psychotherapy patients in practical terms based on the therapist's experience of them, rather than strictly adhering to DSM classifications, Mark and Jerry published a unique journal. Each issue was dedicated to one such kind of patient. Cleverly, they published each issue simultaneously as both softbound journal and hardbound volume, thus creating two categories of potential readers, journal subscribers and one-time book purchasers. Three times I contributed to their project: "Comment" on "The Many Faces of the Hesitant Patient" by Robert J. Willis in Psychotherapy and the Uncommitted Patient (1984), "A Gestalt Therapist's Perspective on Grief" in Psychotherapy and the Grieving Patient (1985), and "On Monomania" in Psychotherapy and the Obsessed Patient (1987).
Mark was the editor of Voices when I proposed to extract all of the substantial articles having to do with Gestalt therapy from the first twenty-five years of Voices and get this collection published in book form. He encouraged me in this project and early on was my liaison with EC.Published in 1992, and still in print, the result was Gestalt Voices. Mark had earlier invited me onto the editorial board of Voices, and through these two involvements he taught me a good bit about the art of editing.
Jerry, too, perhaps unrecognized by him, gave me a gift. Overhearing him in a tête-à-tête at an AAP gathering discussing Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools (Narrenschiff, 1494), I paused and was invited by him into the conversation. A man after my own heart, he was, demonstrating contemporary application of arcane knowledge. I soon purchased a copy and still consult it not infrequently!
And, so I remember Mark and Jerry with fondness and appreciation.
Edward W. L. Smith
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