Gary Keith Grenell

Gary Keith Grenell

Gary Grenell, Ph.D., a noted Seattle psychoanalyst who enjoyed a parallel career as an art photographer, died from pancreatic cancer at his home in Green Lake, Seattle, surrounded by friends and family. He was 58 years old.

Dr. Grenell served on the faculty of the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (SPSI), and was a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences. He also served as chair of the faculty at SPSI from 1993-1996 and from 2004-2006. His seminar in the residency program, Advanced Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, was highly sought-after among psychiatric residents.

A successful art photographer, Gary had his first exhibition in 1974, and was involved in 25 additional solo and group exhibitions during his career, including shows at the Kings County Art Gallery, Bumbershoot Fair, the Photographic Center Northwest Gallery, Fotocircle Gallery, all of Seattle, the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, the Portland Art Museum, and a current exhibition at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in Woodstock, N.Y. His project, "Five Blocks to Green Lake" was shown at Seattle City Hall. Seven photographs from the series reside in the permanent collection of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. A bound edition of "Five Blocks to Green Lake" is available at Blurb.com.

Gary was born in Brooklyn in 1954. At the age of 3, he was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor and subsequent lung metastases. His treatment at Sloan-Kettering with then-experimental chemo and radiation therapies made it possible for children thereafter to be cured of Wilms tumor. In 1958 lung metastases were discovered and he underwent further treatment.

Grenell's family settled in Beverly Hills in 1963. His father, Bernard Grenell, was a successful businessman and community leader; his mother, Barbara Grenell, a brilliant homemaker. As a teen, Gary developed a strong interest in photography and the human potential movement, forces that would stay with him throughout life. After graduating Beverly Hills High School in 1972, Grenell attended Santa Monica Community College and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in psychology from USC.

In the 1980s Gary attended graduate school at the California School of Professional Psychology (M.A. Clinical Psychology), and the United States International University (Ph.D. Clinical psychology, 1987). He did a pre-doctoral internship at University Hospitals of Cleveland, in the Case Western Reserve University Department of Psychiatry.

Following his doctoral dissertation, he completed formal post-doctoral training at Wright Institute Postgraduate Center (Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy) and Reiss-Davis Child Study Center (Child Diagnostic Assessment), both in Los Angeles.

In 1984, during the year of his Cleveland internship, Gary met his future wife and the love of his life, Christine. In 1990, the Grenells moved to Seattle, where he set up a private practice of clinical psychology. Also at that time, he began his training in psychoanalysis at the SPSI, where he ultimately served on all major committees and the board.

Gary authored two papers published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association: "The Termination Phase of Psychoanalysis as Seen Through the Lens of the Dream" in 2002, and a seminal paper on the nature of dreams, "Affect Integration in Dreams and Dreaming" in 2008.

Enthusiastic about each day, Gary embodied a positive approach to life. He played as hard as he worked, and felt compassion for those he encountered. Throughout his life, he was known for his honest, straightforward, and direct approach to interpersonal relationships. He loved above all being father to his son, Noah, and husband to Christine, for whom his love was boundless..

Gary is preceded in passing by his infant brother, Noah and his father, Bernard. Gary is survived by his mother Barbara Grenell of Beverly Hills, his beloved wife, Christine, and son, Noah Alfred Lewis Grenell, of Seattle; sisters Abby Brown of Boulder, Colo., and Jennifer Ailes of Los Angeles. Donations may be made in Gary's name to The University of Washington Medical Center at UW Medicine Advancement, attn. Gift Processing, Box 358045, Seattle, WA, 98195-8045.