Arnold D Richards

It is hard to define what poetry is but one thing is certain: the experience of reading a poem should not leave you cold. A poem may be the artful arrangement of words on a blank page but some emotion must be aroused in the reader. Up Close and Personal by Arnold Richards suggests that spontaneity and intimacy are the poet's goal: the poems must appear to be casual when in fact they have been carefully constructed. "Art abhors the confessional" Richards says: he knows that out of contrivance emotional truth must be dragged "kicking and screaming" if necessary, as poetry "cuts up life/ into pieces/and pastes them / on a page" (from the poem Scissors and Paste). Richards manages to cut up life and paste the pieces on the reader's perceptual doorstep without being merely sensational. Poems like Boro Park and Father's Day are memory stained to be sure: but poetry is more than memory, more than mere confession. The reader is invited to bear witness not only to another's pain, but to the act of daring expression that transcends fear and insists that even horror can be contained, and like sorrow turned into song .- Eugene Mahon, Psychoanalyst and author of the Bone Shop of the Heart, a book of poetry published by IPBooksArnold David Richards' poetry is the poetry of a man looking out over the span of a lifetime and tipping his hat to family and friends, culture and nature. A gentle hello and a fond fare thee well. At 90, he's not yet leaving but not getting any younger. When you read Arnie's poems, you'll read what is precious to him and you, too, will find it precious. His poems speak between the words, dropping us into whispered mourning and a sublime tenderness. And photos too? Yes, but his photos are not of landscapes and cityscapes, they are photos of how Arnie sees the world. He sees the world through spaciousness, a wide angle lens, and a panoramic view of all that the world is. Arnie takes it all in, and because of that he is filled with the world. I'm sure the reader will enjoy this selection of poems and photos and find them poignant and wonderful.-Daniel S. Benveniste, PhD, author of Libido, Culture, and Consciousness: Revisiting Freud's Totem and Taboo

This book can only hint at the inexhaustible creativity of its author. To be sure, the reader will glimpse the variety of Richards' interest. Arnold Richards has fought for diversity of opinion-where hitherto isolated thinkers and practitioners from far flung analytic schools actually meet and exchange ideas without being distorted as imagined strangers.--Bonnie Litowitz

Arnold Richards's psychoanalytic contributions follow the leitmotif of "integrative pluralism" how to continue the dialogue between the contributors of disparate psychoanalytic schools of thought (i.e., thought collectives) with the larger psychoanalytic knowledge base as it grows and changes with each new contribution. The chapters of the first section of this book show us the evolution of this design.Although these chapters give us a noticeable trace of this motif, it has taken more then half a century to develop, requiring life experience from the many roles Richards has played and the posts he has held (see Friedman, p.__). He has been editor of The American Psychoanalyst (TAP), Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA), Festschrifts for four prominent psychoanalysts (1986, 1988, 1993, 1994), two additional collections (2001, 2010), and lately International Psychoanalysis.net. He is also the publisher of IPBooks. During this time he has practiced his craft as teacher, supervisor, training analyst, and clinician, along the way contributing over a hundred publications to the psychoanalytic literature. As editor-in-chief of InternationalPsychoanalysis.net, Richards has kept its readers up to date on all things psychoanalytically fit to print., He has also organized a series of annual conferences bringing together dissimilar points of view around (a) common clinical concerns and (b) major educational and training dilemmas. It has been suggested that he be given the title "omnicompetent editor" (Friedman 2004, p. 13). Throughout these dialogues, as we will see, Richards has attempted to engage those who claim a new orthodoxy and would minimize the overall efforts of psychoanalysis; those who claim new theories, usually untested and unproven, that would replace the old; and those immovably complacent in the status quo.

Dr. Arnold Richards is a towering figure in psychoanalysis: a consummate clinician, revered educator, prolific author, legendary editor, and original thinker. Volume 6 of his selected papers cull these distinguishing contributions to the field with interviews, book reviews, commentaries and autobiography. As psychoanalysis is rooted in dialogue-listening and speaking-this volume is aptly based in conversations: sometimes Dr. Richards is the interviewer or interviewee, sometimes a reviewer or reviewee. This makes for an exceptional volume that is both conversational and true to life. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about this exceptional psychoanalyst and his work."-Ahron Friedberg, MD, LP, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai; author, Faces of Love: Life Studies in Psychoanalysis"I've been fascinated by Arnold Richards's collected papers and memoir since the beginning. He was an influential presence in the history of both the "orthodox" American Psychoanalytic Associations, and the heretical ones. Equally fascinating and enviable are his personal reminiscences of encounters with other psychoanalysts. I am particularly fond that Dr. Richards also wrote about two men whom I myself admired and learned from: Otto Isakower, my beloved teacher, and Aldous Huxley, one of the literary greats."-Henry Zvi Lothane, MD, Board-certified psychiatrist; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai; Life Fellow ApsA, Member, IPA