Thomas Kirsch

1936 - 2017

Thomas B. Kirsch

June 14, 1936-October 22, 2017

Dr. Thomas Kirsch passed away peacefully at his home in Palo Alto with his family members at his side on October 22, 2017.  Dr. Kirsch was born in London on June 14, 1936 and his birth was celebrated by a congratulatory note from C.G. Jung to his parents, Hilde and James Kirsch, both of whom had become Jungian analysts following their initial analytic work with Jung.  Tom liked to joke that he was born "into the family business" and the truth is that he did work "in the family business" as a Jungian analyst all his adult life.
The Kirsch family moved to Los Angeles in 1940 when Tom was four years old.  James and Hilde became founding members of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.   As both of Tom's parents were German Jews, Tom inherited from them not only the Jungian tradition of psychoanalysis but also the complicated history of Jung and Jewish people.  For most of his life, Tom carried with great integrity the burden of being an interpreter of that history to Jungians and Freudians alike.
Tom was truly a man for all seasons and, in addition to being immersed in the rich cultural history of Europe through his parents, he developed his own deep connection to being an American in his Los Angeles upbringing.  He loved sports and was an avid tennis player until a back injury ended his tennis playing days.  He loved to swim and did so throughout his life.   He was a devoted sports fan, with the San Francisco Giants baseball team bringing him great joy.  Tom was also steeped in classical music and was meticulous in his choice of the very best music and the very best equipment for playing it.
Tom left Los Angeles at the age of 17 to attend Reed College and then went on to graduate from Yale Medical School in 1961.  He took a psychiatric residency at Stanford University.  Along the way, he was warned that pursuing training as a Jungian analyst would be a kind of professional suicide as the Jungian tradition was small and poorly understood at the time of his training.  This warning did not stop Dr. Kirsch from completing his training at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco in 1968 or from developing a long and deeply influential relationship with Dr. Joseph Henderson, a dean of the San Francisco Jungian community.  
In 1977 Dr. Kirsch joined the Executive Committee of the International Association of Analytical Psychology and served as its President from 1989-1995. As IAAP President Dr. Kirsch furthered the development of a consistent attention to professional ethics, including the formulation of a written ethics code on the part of each of the member groups of the IAAP. Both during and after his tenure as President, Dr. Kirsch traveled the world tirelessly as an elder statesman of Analytical Psychology which flourished under his leadership with the formation and development of Jungian organizations in Taiwan, China, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. 
At the same time, Dr. Kirsch maintained an active clinical practice which was the foundation of his professional life. In his long and productive career, he wrote some 100 articles and books, including The Jungians, the definitive history of the world wide development of the Jungian tradition, and a fine, intimate autobiography, A Jungian Life. In 2017, Dr. Kirsch's lifetime contributions were honored in a Routledge Selected Works Volume of his theoretical contributions:  Jungian Analysis, Depth Psychology and Soul. As if in fulfilment of his destiny, a superb, numinous interview of Dr. Kirsch by Murray Stein was filmed in Jung's library at Bollingen by Luis Moris and is available through Chiron Publications. Dr. Kirsch's study of the history of Jungian psychoanalysis began as an avocation and became over time a rich, scholarly pursuit.
What served Dr. Kirsch well as an analyst, a statesman, a family man, and a deep and loyal friend to many colleagues was his incredibly finely tuned feeling which was a trustworthy measure of the meaning and value of whatever the issue might be.  Tom Kirsch lived a large and full life with travel, professional engagements, a love of music, sports, spy novels  and deep friendships around the world.  In the midst of such expansive energies, he remained fundamentally modest, curious, open, and acutely discriminating in his many relationships to the world—inner and outer.  He is survived by his beloved wife, Dr. Jean Kirsch who is also a Jungian analyst, a sister Ruth Kirsch Walsh, his son David, his daughter Susannah Kirsch-Kutz, and 5 grandchildren: Jacob and Isabel Kirsch, Hilde, Jasper, and Theia Kirsch Kutz. Gifts in memory of Dr. Kirsch can be contributed to The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, Yale Medical School or Reed College.