LARS LOFGREN M.D.

LOFGREN--Lars Borje, M.D., a psychoanalyst who practiced in Sweden and the United States, died June 28, 2010, in Molnlycke, Sweden. He was born in Gavle, Sweden, on August 26, 1920. He pursued his medical studies at the University of Uppsala, where he met and married Ingeborg Agnes Hellner, a law student, in 1943. A Freudian, he underwent analytic training in Sweden and with Erik Erikson in Stockbridge, Massachusetts from 1958 to 1960. Upon his return to Sweden, he became president of the Swedish Psychoanalytic Association and hosted the International Psychoanalytic Congress in Stockholm in 1963. In 1964, he returned with his family to Stockbridge to join the staff at the Austen Riggs Center. He served as Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine from 1968 to 1973. He was associated with the Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco from 1969 to 1972 and after that was Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and the Brentwood VA Hospital from 1972 to 1976, when he entered private practice. He and his wife retired to Oregon in 1984. There, he served on the board of directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, for whom he was a tireless fundraiser. They returned to Sweden in 1996. Dr. Lofgren was an early leader of Group Relations conferences as practiced by the Tavistock Institute in both the United States and Sweden. He was a founding member of GREX in San Francisco, SCOLA in Los Angeles, and AGSLO in Sweden, all organizations devoted to this approach of studying group and organizational dynamics from a psychoanalytic perspective. In addition, he wrote extensively on a number of psychoanalytic topics for The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Dr. Lofgren will be remembered by many whose lives he touched throughout his long life as a superb healer, teacher, and mentor; a lover of jokes, good food, good wine, and music; and a loyal friend. He and Ingeborg, who died in 2007, were extraordinarily devoted to each other during their 64-year marriage; they rarely spent time apart and shared a deep love of both nature and the fine arts. He is survived by his three children, Sten B. Lofgren of Concord, Massachusetts and his domestic partner Sally Lopez, Hans B. Lofgren and his wife Tijana of Pixbo, Sweden, and Lotta M. Lofgren of Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as six grandchildren. Lars was a formidable force in the lives of all who knew him; he will be missed by all. There will be a memorial service and interment in Molnlycke, Sweden, at 11am on August 6. C.E.B. Begravningsbyra (c.e.b-begravningsbyra@telia.com) is handling the services.