NORMAN ROSENBLOOD

Bryan (Norman) Rosenblood, age 91, passed away on September 23, 2025. Norm was a popular professor at McMaster University from 1967 - 2000. He had an extensive psychoanalytic practice in Hamilton and was an energetic advocate for community mental health. In his early years, he was a heck of a football player. Born in Hamilton in 1934 to Murray and Sylvia (née Rosenburg), Norm was the eldest of their children, followed by beloved brother, Fred, and sister, Myrna. Growing up in West Hamilton, he attended Westdale High School. When Norm was kicked out of Westdale for smoking, his father enrolled him in St. Jerome's Catholic School in Kitchener, where he improved academically and excelled in sports. He became the first Jewish quarterback of the high school football team, The Lions, and a member of the school's championship basketball team. Norm's post-secondary school academic career began with an undergraduate degree from Western University. Then, while completing an MA at McMaster University he taught English at Ancaster High School. He completed his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh while on a Mellon teaching fellowship. He started off teaching at Brock University, where he founded and chaired the Shaw Seminars, then edited the resulting two-volume publication. He moved to McMaster University in 1967, where he taught English and Applied Psychoanalysis in the Humanities Department for the next 35 years. Norm married Laurie Wald, from California. Laurie was a talented opera singer who sang with the Canadian Opera Company and Hamilton's Bach Elgar Choir. The couple had two children, Ken and Lynn. Laurie passed away in 1997. Norm is also survived by four grandchildren. While teaching at McMaster, Norm began training as a psychoanalyst at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute, which ignited a lifelong passion. Norm became a training analyst and maintained a private psychoanalytic practice from 1979 until his death. He founded and was first director of the Group for Applied Psychoanalysis at McMaster, and for a time was President of the Faculty Association. He advanced his interest in community mental health as founder and director of the Hamilton Centre for Psychoanalysis. Until the very end, he passionately strategized approaches to helping young people deal with mental health issues and unconscious struggles and lamented the state of the world. Norm's final noted words were, "Why war?" An example of applied psychoanalysis, with Norm analyzing poems by Anne Sexton and Robert Frost, can be seen here: hamiltonpsychoanalysis.ca/pages/arts-main.html. Norm's desired epitaph was a Chaucer quote: "And gladly would he learn." In lieu of flowers, donations to McMaster University would be appreciated. Condolences may be left at www.circleoflifecbc.com.