Gertrude and Rubin Blanck: Their Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Clinical Social Work and to the Body of Psychoanalytic Knowledge

Abstract

The Clinical Social Work Journal and Gertrude and Rubin Blanck have had a long association going all the way back to an issue published in 1987 honoring them for their outstanding contribution to their profession. This came about in the following way. On November 17, 1984, the New York State Society of Clinical Social Work gave ‘‘A Conference and Award Presentation honoring Gertrude Blanck and Rubin Blanck for their outstanding contribution to the field of Clinical Social Work.’’ At the end of the conference Jean Sanville, the editor of the Clinical Social Work Journal at that time, stood up and said that she was so impressed by the papers she had just heard that she wanted the entire content of this festschrift to the Blancks to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal. That issue was published in the winter of 1987, (Volume 15, #4). Rather than inviting prominent members of our profession as presenters at this important event, it gave Gertrude and Rubin pleasure to share the honor of this occasion with their students. That is just one of the many examples of their extraordinary generosity, a quality that has played an important role in the manner in which they taught and shared their considerable knowledge. They knew their material so well and in such depth that they were able to teach it with unsurpassed clarity, a rare talent and one born of their deep commitment to transmitting their knowledge to their students and to future generations of social workers practicing psychotherapy as well as other forms of social work. We thank David Phillips for inviting us to co-author this article about the Blancks. The opportunity to do so holds particular meaning for us, like a cycle of affirmation and continuity, because the introduction to that issue of the Clinical Social Work Journal was written by Patsy Turrini, who had been the moderator of that memorable meeting and was a student of the Blancks at that time. One of the six papers presented was by Siskind (1987), also one of their students back then. It gives us great pleasure to write about Gertrude and Rubin Blanck, two outstanding clinicians who were our teachers, supervisors, and eventually our friends and colleagues. We are pleased to recount their contributions for our younger colleagues who did not have the benefit of studying with the Blancks and to revive for those who did study with them the memories of the pleasure and excitement we derived from the intense learning and theory building of that period, an experience that enriched our professional lives and set us on a satisfying and everevolving professional path that continues to this day. While we were preparing this material, it became clear to us that their contributions are rarely studied now, and perhaps have been lost to social work training in the last two decades. Glimpses of their ideas appear in articles on attachment theory, relational theory, and mentalization propositions but rarely are they referenced to the Blancks. To remedy this neglect we will offer as much of a review of their work as time and space allow and although we will not be able to do justice to their many contributions, we hope readers will be stimulated to read their books and discover their enduring contributions. The Blancks viewed psychoanalytic thinking as an everevolving branch of knowledge. The knowledge base grew P. Turrini (&) New York School for the Study of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, 1995 Oakwood Avenue, Merrick, NY 11566, USA e-mail: Palex8@aol.com