FRED SANDER

SANDER--Dr. Fred Martin (78) of New York City and West Cornwall CT, died peacefully at home, March 25, 2015. Throughout Fred's illness, his loving wife of almost 51 years, Joelle and their two sons, Stephen and Jason devoted themselves to his care. Fred was a man who knew he was loved by his family and the many friends who were there for him and his family in myriad ways. A refugee from Suhl, Germany he escaped the Nazis in 1938 with his parents Kurt and Minna, having received visas from an aunt in the United States. He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, received his BA from Harvard (1959) and his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1963) where he was introduced to working with families. Fred studied at the Nathan Ackerman Family Institute and shortly after joined the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in New York City. He taught the Psychoanalytic Theory of Families and Couples in their Extension and Psychotherapy program and co-lead The Psychoanalysis Theater Program under its auspices. Fred had a passion for theater from an early age which is reflected in his book "Individual and Family Therapy: Toward an Integration", in which he uses characters and plots from great plays to illustrate psychoanalytic concepts. He also wrote the Introduction and a psychoanalytic chapter in his book "Created In Our Own Images" about the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea for which he engaged well known scholars from art critics to scientists to professors of Gender to contribute their own take on this multidimensional myth. Fred was a pioneer in combining psychoanalysis, individual therapy and couples and family therapy in his private practice. The treatment of couples and families was unheard of among Freudian analysts for decades, but with great persistence, he succeeded in convincing analysts of the importance of his broader approach with many of them referring him all modalities of cases. Families who knew they needed couple or family treatment discovered his reputation and sought him out. Using his sophisticated skills, Fred both treated and supervised families and couples as Associate Attending Psychiatrist and taught The Treatment and Theory of Families and Couples as Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He went on to co-lead the program, Family and Couples' Treatment at the Weill Cornell Medical College from 2000-2009, where he was Clinical Associate Professor and a regular member of the fine Richardson Institute of the History of Psychiatry seminar. In addition to his wife and sons, he is survived by his superb granddaughter Elizabeth, his sister Carol(husband Joseph Whitehorn, PhD.) his nieces Elizabeth Whitehorn (husband Matthew Reilein) and Stephanie Whitehorn (husband, Rabbi Joshua Franklin). A memorial will be held at the 92nd St. YM-YWHA on April 11, from 11:00-1:00. A reception will follow.