After Han Groen-Prakken had died, a large number of you expressed their sympathy in the register of condolence on the website of the Han Groen Prakken Psychoanalytic Institute for Eastern Europe.

I want to express here my deep gratitude to all of you, also on behalf of our three children and the other relatives. You really helped us bear the loss of Han.

Sjirk Groen

We are very sad to tell you that Han Groen-Prakken died on Saturday, October 18, evening peacefully, surrounded by her children. One of her last sentences was "I had a good life".

We very much regret that she is not with us any more. Han meant a lot for many of us with her character, not being afraid to state controversial things. Her activities in rediscovering the lost analysis of former Eastern Europe have shaped and will shape, in the past and the future the psychoanalysis of Europe.

Han was a wise person; we will miss the remarkable lady with the brave, warm and big heart.

Until her death Han Groen-Prakken was the Co-Chair of the IPA EEC, Advisor of the PIEE Board, Chair of the Sponsoring Committee of the Belgrade Psychoanalytical Study Group.

Hardly a member she became the President of the Dutch Society. She has been the President of the European Psychoanalytic Federation At that time she started to develop all sorts of contacts with people from former Eastern Europe.

During her lifetime she went on teaching and supervising people from former Eastern Europe. As a token of gratitude for all her work the IPA and EPF Psychoanalytical Institute for Eastern Europe carries her name.

Dear Dr. Han Groen-Prakken's family, colleagues and friends!
It is so sad. She did so much for all of us and me personally.
There is a lack of words to express condolence and pity.

The pupil of Dr. Han Groen-Prakken.
Arkady Panz.

On my personal behalf and on behalf of Psychoanalytical Society of Slovenia express my deep condolesence and grief with Han's family and the Netherlands Psychoanalytical Society in thee loss of devoted wife, mother and distinquished and exquisite teacher and training analyst.

Trully yours,
Rojnik Bernard

Dear colleagues,

What a shock to receive Tamara's email announcing the awful news. As all my colleagues in Moscow I am deeply saddened to hear of Han's death, as she was a very dear teacher, the most helpful, supportive and absolutely indispensable friend since the very first and quite diffident steps of ours towards profession at the beginning of 1990s until the very last days of her life, when quite a few of us had become candidates or qualified analysts to our and, I believe, to her proud. Today I am re-reading her letters (some typed, some hand-written, some received in Moscow, others in Wiesbaden) and trying to recollect meetings with her at quite a lot of seminars, summer schools and conferences. Her words sound form the memory and letters again: wise and simple, instructive and full of personal warmth:

What a loss for us to absorb! I wish all of us a lot of strength facing a huge empty space left by our Han Groen-Prakken.

Cordial wishes,
Igor Kadyrov,
Moscow

I want to express our deep sorrow. Han left us - unexpectedly - as it is always with the death of somebody whom we like. Han was among the first analysts who visited our underground analytic group in Prague still before the "velvet" revolution in 1989. It was then always great pleasure to meet her, talk to her and to cowork with her. I will always keep her in my memory.

Michael Sebek, Ph.D., CSc.
President od the Czech Psychoanal. Prov. Society

Dear friends,

I am writing this to express my deep sympathy and sorrow for Dr Han Groen-Prakken's death. Her industry and passion have contributed a lot to the opportunity for development of psychoanalytic thinking in countries like Bulgaria and there will be much of herself alive in our future work as helping professionals.

With condolences,
Maya Mladenova, Bulgaria

Deeply afflicted with the news we would like to express our condolence to the family. With Mrs.Groen - Prakken leaving we have lost dear, kind and great person and teacher.

The members of the Croatian Psychoanalytic Group
Vlasta Rudan

The Belgrade Psychoanalytic Study Group was introduced to Han only fifteen years ago. In the course of those fifteen years many unbelievable and almost unimaginable things occurred. To state only two of them: Ten-years-long war nightmare and, simultaneously, almost paradoxically, our dream of founding our psychoanalytic group was realized. Those who knew Han and were familiar with her ability to turn impossible into possible, will not hesitate to agree with us that our Group's recognition within a relatively short time goes to her credit. We could always count on Han's support during those difficult times, powerful but discreet support so typical of her, enabling us to learn how to recognize situations that we can solve on our own, as well as those where her immediate help was necessary. Although an IPA official, she never behaved as if she knew everything but always wanted to discuss the matters first, to learn our opinion and to come to decisions together with us. She taught us that there are no such people that know it all and do all themselves, and also that there are no people that know nothing and can do nothing. In a word, she left space for us to do our best, individually and as a Group. When that was not sufficient or possible, she offered her protection. Even when protecting us, she did that discreetly, leaving us with a feeling that we could certainly do it ourselves, however...

A saying goes that a friend in need is a friend indeed. During the last two years of war, when communications with the world were severed, as the Chair of the IPA Sponsoring Committee for Belgrade, Han succeeded in organizing meetings of BPSG and SC in Budapest. Although never explicitly stated, those two meetings had her personal dimension besides the professional one. It could be worded as: "I did this so that you could take a break from the terror you live in". One certainly had to have a lot of patience with our Group overwhelmed with fears, guilt feelings and uncertainty for the Group's and the existence of psychoanalysis in those circumstances, as well as for personal and family existence of each of the Group members and candidates. When we met in Budapest in 1999, although already ill, Han listened to our war stories, offered her own war stories, and together with us planned how to make psychoanalysis in Serbia, and us with it, survive the dark period.

If it weren't for Han that started searching for Eastern European psychoanalysis that managed to survive, we are sure that the fate of not only BPSG but also of the other Eastern European groups would have been much different today. With Han gone, the times of benevolent and wise heroes that are always at hand when needed are over. No wonder that BPSG members called Han their Good Fairy. She left quietly and discretely, the same way she lived and created. Till the last moment we believed that the death does simply bypass such people. Certainly because we need, although not children any more for a long time, to preserve such a Good Fairy within us, not only for us that dreamt, worked and created together with her, but also for the sake of those that will continue to develop psychoanalytic idea in Serbia.

Members of the Belgrade Psychoanalytical Study Group: Vesna Brzev-Ćurčić, Vojislav Ćurčić, Tija Despotović, Ivanka Jovanović-Dunjić, Tanja Vukosavljević-Gvozden, Aleksandar Kontić, Boris Kordić, Jasminkla Šuljagić-Kostić, Milica Martinović, Milica Jojić-Milenković, Ljiljana Milivojević, Ljiljana Milosavljević, Tamara Štajner-Popović, Marija Vezmar, Aleksandar Vučo, Gordana Marinkov-Vulević.

All of us here at the Latvian Psychoanalytical Group were deeply sadened to hear of Ms. Han Groen Prakken passing. Most of us here had know Ms. Han Groe Prakken since her first visit to Latvia in 1994 and over the years have admired her energy and dedication to impart her wealth of knowledge and experience to the eager becoming psychoanalysts here in Eastern Europe. Beside her inspiring professionalism she as a person represented great wisdom and most touching human kindness. We all will miss her deeply.

With kindest regards,
The Latvian Psychoanalytical Group
Dace Cerava

Dear friends,

I want to share the sorrow and saddness that we all experience with the death of dear Han Groen Prakken. I will remember her lessons in courage and humility.

Toma Tomov

I am so sad to hear about the death of Dr. Han Groen Prakken.
I feel that we have lost the person that has done most to help
Eastern Europe reenter the Psychoanalytic field. She had also
been an inspiration to me ever since I first met her 12 years ago.

With deep respect,
Kaspars Tuters,
Toronto, Canada, Riga, Latvia

Han Groen will be remembered by me as a very wise person who could listen very good and who showed that it is possible to combine the many tasks in life.

Thea Koster-Sanders

To Han Groen-Prakken who brought psychoanalysis to Lithuania and has ever since encouraged, helped and inspired us. You will stay forever in our hearts and souls. With deep sorrow,

Lithuanian Society of Psychoanalysis

Geachte familie Groen,
Met veel treurige gedachten las ik Uw overlijdensaankondiging van mijn zeer gewaardeerde collega en leermeesteres Han Groen-Prakken. Ik laat U graag mijn condoleance weten. Ik betreur het zeer dat ik, vanwege psychoanalytische opleidingsverplichtingen in Beijing, China, niet aanwezig zal kunnen zijn op de crematie komende donderdag om U persoonlijk te kunnen condoleren.

Met oprechte deelneming,
Bien Filet

Zojuist ontving ik schriftelijk bericht dat Han Groen-Prakken op 18 oktober is overleden. Voor mij volkomen onverwacht. Han heb ik leren kennen als enthousiast en ervaren docent, supervisor, collega en mede-auteur. Een strijdbare vrouw, die inderdaad 'aan velen heeft gegeven.' Sjirk, haar kinderen, kleinkinderen, zus en overige familie wens ik heel veel sterkte. Han zal voor mij een onvergetelijke vrouw blijven, die overigen ook heel lastig kon zijn en daardoor voor mij des te menselijker was. Ze hield gelukkig niet van bewierrokerij. De wilgen op de kaft van het feestboek ter ere van haar 70e verjaardag die ik in het Amsterdamse Bos heb gefotografeerd, lijken erg op de wilgen bij mij in de Achterhoek. Ook die moeten regelmatig geknot worden om bloeiend te blijven. Dat zal mij helpen in mijn herinnering aan Han.

Een hartelijke groet,
Joost Baneke
Koningsweg 8
7255 KR Hengelo Gld.

With deep sorrow I share your pain. She had a special contact with Budapest, and I express, on behalf of the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Association, our deepest sadness that she left us.

Your sincerely
Gábor Szőnyi

Beste betrokkenen,
Ik heb Han gekend als een vriendelijke, verstandige en zelfstandig denkende analytica, die ook nog verder keek dan de grenzen van de psychoanalyse. Met haar is een heel waardevol mens gestorven. Sterkte met de verwerking van het verlies.

Joop van Oers (analyticus)

Lieve familie Groen-Prakken Hierbij willen wij onze innige deelneming betuigen met het overlijden van Han Groen-Prakken. Dankzij haar enthousiaste medewerking aan het tot stand komen van het Prakken familieboek zijn wij haar veel dank verschuldigd. Wij wensen u voor de aankomende tijd veel sterkte.

Fam. Jac. Prakken, Appelscha
Fam. B. Hofstra-Prakken, Grou

Dear Colleagues and Friends, I am deeply grieved by the sad news of Han Groen Prakken death. It is impossible to imagine that we will never meet Han any more. She was so alive and generous, kind and humanian. We appreciate greatly her sincere dedication to the "impossible" profession and the most active participation in the process of rebirth of psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe. Her contribution to the whole process and to the personal developments of the candidates was extremely valuable. We will always remember all the meetings with such a great individual. She will stay in our hearts and minds forever. We are sending our deep and true condolences to her family, friends, colleagues and patients, for all those who knew and loved this wonderful person.

On behalf of Kiev Psychoanalytic Society,
Tatyana Pushkareva.

I would like to express our candid condolence with regard to dear Dr. Han Groen Prakken untimely death.
We grieve about this irreplaceable loss with all of you.
Ms. Prakken's contribution to psychoanalysis is invaluable.
The days spent with Ms. Prakken in Summer School dinted our souls and will further remain in our memory and work.

Sincerely yours,
Angela Vardanyan
Armenian Psychoanalysis Association

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one

T.S. Eliot

To day in the day of your cremation we hold to our memories and to our hopes for the future. A future unthinkable without what you've done for all of us.

The Bulgarian Group for Development of Psychoanalysis

Death of Han Groen Prakken is a great loss for all of us and we share the grief with everyone who knew her. Today we had our group meeting and remembered Han. We have known Han Groen Prakken for more than ten years, which, of course, was only the minor part of her life.

She was a kind of person who sowed and built. Largely due to her will and her efforts psychoanalysis in the Eastern Europe became a reality.

She had a strong and independent spirit, she could contain a lot of controversial traits within her: she was caring, but not infantilizing, she brought with her a sober realism, paradoxically combined with an inspiration, a feeling of freedom and a structuring environment.

With Han Groen Prakken the whole epoch in the development of psychoanalysis in Europe is going away. It was an epoch of discovering, recognizing, knowing each other, establishing and maintaining contacts, stormy development. The scale of this epoch was to a great extent determined by the large scale of Han s personality.

Moscow Psychoanalytic Society: Marina Agracheva, Tatiana Alavidze, Marina Arutyunian, Sergei Baklushinsky, Tatiana Drusinova, Igor Kadyrov, Ekaterina Kalmykova, Anna Kazanskaya, Natalia Kholina, Natalia Kigai, Elena Misko, Karolina Soloed, Masha Timofeeva, Alexander Uskov.

Dear Han,

You was the one of few persons who fought and gave us place to be. Us, means all people from Eastern Europe who need psychoanalysis in any sense. Also, I want to emphasize more that in your presence , in contact with you, your gentleness, warmth, your mind, deeply touched and filled me. The best way to express these feelings matches with Wordsworth's words:

"And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with joy
Of elevated thoughts;a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky and in the mind of man "

Dear Han, you went away, but I know that you see from my words that you will always be the part of my space.

Brankica Acimovic
The Candidate of Belgrade Study Group

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I have received the very sorrowful and painful news that our Han Groen-Prakken has died. It is a great loss and unearthly grief for all of us, who knew her, who loved her, who had the opportunity to bWe trained by her and to benefit from her teaching.

What I want to express now it is not only my own personal appreciation of Han and my own gratitude for all that I learned from her. I think that we are all indebted to her not only for her contributions to the development of psychoanalysis, but also for her enormous courage and tenacity, combined with wise flexibility, creativity, that she put at the service of many difficult and complex situations that arose in different Societies, actively helping to break the "iron curtain" between East and West, and her activity was constantly geared to the defense of crucial general psychoanalytical tenets.

It is hardly to realize this fact, that death has put an abrupt to this course of her life. All of us while morning her loss, remember at the same time the pleasure of having met and worked with her as a great psychoanalyst, full of generosity and kindness, and memory about her is now part of the history of our Psychoanalytical Institute for Eastern Europe, and of the personal history of all of us who shared her interests in psychoanalysis and in life. Out of death is no word. Out of death is timelessness, but no time. And I'm sure that Han Groen-Prakken is alive among us. And her name given to the PIEE, it is not the darkness and dead eternity for her, but the protective permanence, the guaranteed eternity, the deathlessness, which she deserved as a person.

I wish to express my sincere condolences to all who was closed to her, who loved her, to all her family, her husband, children and grandchildren, and to her close friends.

Nina Asanova

We received in deep sorrow the news about the death of our Han. A woman that changed our lives since we know her a decade ago, as much as a caring and empathic teacher but also as an identification model.

What was always amazing to us is that Han was bursting with incredible amounts of energy. She was an inexorable and engaged person who was always brave enough to find new ways to progress. On the other hand she was always available, constantly and warmly, as a good mother to us. Han managed to combine strength and tenderness, teaching us how to love psychoanalysis as a profession, as orientation and a way of living.

We remember her as a lecturer, a supervisor and a coordinator who surprisingly always knew our names and details from our professional progressing. We also remember her in the moments of relaxing, as someone who knew how to share the joy with us. As a professional and a person, she showed us a way of delightful individual and professional

What Han has instilled in us, we are sure will never fade nor die ...

Goran Babić, Sanja Borovečki, Oleg Filipović, Irena Ladika, Stanislav Matačić Candidates of Croatian Psychoanalytical Group

Met heel veel dank voor haar deskundige en menselijke benadering tijdens de jaren van mijn psychoanalyse bij mevrouw Groen-Prakken. Deze jaren hebben mijn leven blijvend veranderd. Zij houdt een belangrijke en dierbare plek in mijn herinnering. Ik wens haar familie veel sterkte toe.

Carla van Beelen

Dear colleagues,

it is so deep sorrow! I am one of the students from newcoming countries - Estonia, in a group led by Swedish-Estonian psychoanalyst Eve Suurvee. Since the beginning in 80.-es, we have felt support from abroad, that Han Groen-Prakken gave to the first steps towards psychoanalysis in East-European countries, and we remain always thankful to her. Although much of my contacts with psychoanalysis have been lost, I have kept all my admiration to the wonderful personalities in analytical world. As a special gift of life I had the opportunity to meet Han personally at the International Congress of Psychoanalysis in Stockholm, and her extraordinary warmth and enthusiasm will remain deep in my heart.

Certainly, Estonian group of psychodynamic psychotherapists will pass our condolences, but for me there is so much personal grief, that I could not refrain from sharing my own dear memories from Han.

Maie Kreegipuu,
lecturer of clinical psychology,
University of Tartu, Estonia.

Would you kindly convey me deepest condolences to the family of Mrs.Han Groen Prakken. Although I did not have the honour to know her personaly I know well her emense contribution to the development of psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe.

With great respect,
dr. Dejan Florikic,
the candidate of the Belgrade psychonalitical study group

A prominent person whose name will remain in the history of psychoanalysis, Han Groen-Prakken was generous and caring in the most personal way. At a difficult moment I was extremely happy to meet her deep understanding and respectful support, which I will never forget.

Anna Kazanskaya,
Moscow.

Geachte familie,

De erudiete en tegelijkertijd praktische en onopgesmukte wijze waarop Mw Groen de psychoanalyse presenteerde en vorm gaf, heeft diepe indruk op mij gemaakt en zal een blijvend voorbeeld zijn.Hierbij mijn condoleances, ik wens u veel sterkte bij het dragen van dit verlies.

C.Folkers,
Duivendrecht.

Beste Familie van Han,

Graag wil ik U mij medeleven betuigen bij het overlijden van Han. Ik heb haar zelf niet goed gekend, maar heb veel beroepsgenoten over haar gehoord, en allen waren het er over eens dat Han met haar gezond verstand en haar menselijkheid een belangrijke rol speelde in het bepalen van het klimaat binnen de Nederlandse psychoanalyse, die dat hard nodig had. Uit die verhalen kan ik goed begrijpen wat U aan haar zult missen. Ik wens U een goed verdriet.

Met beste groet,
A. van Dantzig.

Beste mensen, mede namens mijn man wil ik jullie laten weten hoezeer wij geschokt waren toen we Han's overlijdensbericht kregen. Doordat Han en wij elkaar in de laatste jaren niet vaak zagen waren we van e.e.a. niet op de hoogte. Ik dacht natuurlijk meteen aan de goede oude tijd waarin we met een hechte club mensen (waaronder uiteraard Han) op de afdeling kinderpsychiatrie onder de vleugels van Bets Frijling, eerst nog wat onwennig maar al gauw enthousiast, bezig waren om 'het vak' te leren. Han deelde mijn gevoelens niet altijd; b.v. wanneer ik wel eens zei het niet steeds eenvoudig te vinden om een huishouden met jonge kinderen te combineren met het werk op de afdeling en het P.A.I. vond ze dat nogal overdreven. Toen ik haar een keer vroeg hoe zij dat dan deed antwoordde ze eenvoudig: 'door mijn werkdagen niet zo vol te plannen en door me in de vacanties voornamelijk bezig te houden met het regelen van het uit-eten-gaan'. Ik heb echter zo'n idee dat Han het daar toch niet bij gelaten heeft.

Wij wensen jullie veel sterkte toe in de komende tijd; niet in het minst morgen bij de crematie. Het spijt ons daar niet bij te kunnen zijn. Hartelijke groeten,

Dabbie de Levita,
Jet de Levita-Isaac

Hierbij willen wij als(oud)collega's van Sjirk en Arjen Groen hen beiden ,maar ook de andere gezins-en familieleden oprecht onze deelneming betuigen met het overlijden van Han.Via de website van het instituut dat haar naam draagt hebben wij inzicht gekregen in de waardevolle betekenis van haar inzet voor de psychoanalyse in de oost-europese landen. Zelf hebben wij haar in het verleden tijdens korte ontmoetingen leren kennen als een vrolijke, humoristische vrouw die gemakkelijk contact legde.

Met hartelijke gevoelens -

Anneke Arbouw en Otto Sigling.

Geachte familie Groen-Prakken Gaarne wil ik U mijn medeleven betuigen met het overlijden van mevrouw Han Groen-Prakken. Ik heb met haar in het bestuur van de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Psychoanalyse gezeten van 1978 tot 1982. Ik draag goede herinneringen met mij mee aan haar als communicatieve, wijze voorzitter van de Vereniging. Ik wens U veel sterkte toe bij het verwerken van dit grote verlies.

Met beste groeten
A.A.M. Feiertag,
psychiater-psychoanalyticus Hellum

Geachte Fam. Groen. Wij willen u condoleren met het overlij den van uw vrouw,moeder,en grootmoeder Wij wensen u veel sterkte toe bij dit verlies

M.W. der Weduwen.
G.A.M. der Weduwen-Slinger.

Hierbij betuigen wij onze oprechte deelneming met het overlijden van Han Groen-Prakken. Onze gedachten gaan uit naar hen die haar dierbaar waren. Wij hopen dat U steun bij elkaar zult vinden in deze voor u zo moeilijke tijd.

Reinou en Wim Slagter
Amstelveen

Beste Sjirk, Ikie en ik willen je graag onze deelneming betuigen met het overlijden van je vrouw. Je weet dat wij haar een aantal keren hebben ontmoet en ook beroepshalve met haar te maken hebben gehad. Ze heeft op ons altijd een heel sympathieke indruk gemaakt. Daarnaast weten wij hoe goed en prettig ze in haar werk was. Maar natuurlijk is voor jou dit alles van minder waarde nu je haar moet missen. Ikie en ik worden uiteraard ook steeds ouder en we zijn er ons goed van bewust wat een geschenk het is om nog bij elkaar te zijn. Vrijwel onvermijdelijk is het dat één van beiden ooit alleen achter blijft. Je probeert je voor te stellen hoe moeilijk dat zal zijn, maar begrijpt ook dat dat pas zal blijken als het zo ver is. Zo is dat nu voor jou. Op dit moment kunnen wij alleen maar met jou meeleven en hopen dat het je, wellicht met je kinderen, zal lukken om je rouw te dragen en er doorheen te komen.

Hartelijke groeten van ons beiden,
Ikie en Jack

Beste Sjirk en familie, Langs deze weg willen Diet en ik , ,jullie condoleren met het verlies van Han. We hebben elkaar maar eenkeer ontmoet en gesproken op de "erfenisbijeenkomst" in Groningen.We zullen ons Han van die bijeenkomst ,voor altijd blijven herinneren. We wesen jullie heel veel sterkte toe de komende tijd.

Met Vr Gr,
Diet en Kees van Duyn
EMMEN

St.Petersburg Society of Child Psychoanalysis wishes to express our condolences to the family and friends of Han Groen-Prakken. We grieve that Han Groen-Prakken has gone. She was one of the founders of the psychoanalytic movement in Eastern Europe. We will remember her bright personality, her strong commitment to psychoanalysis, her immense contribution ro the development of psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe. She will stay forever in our memory as the Teacher for all of us.

On behalf of members of
St.Petersburg Society of Child Psychoanalysis
Dr. Nina Vasilyeva

Odessa Psychoanalityc Group expresses their own condolences on cause of the death of Han Groen Prakken. We grieve along with all. The Person has left life, who has done so much beautiful

Odessa Psychoanalityc Group
Misha Pustovoit

Dear colleagues and friends,

All of us have sustained a serious loss. For us - the East European psychotherapists - Han Hroen-Prakken was not only a tiacher and senjor sesitive friend. She was a person due to who we have obtained the possibility to touch and learn the heritage of contemporary psychoanalytic knowledge. It was an invaluable gift. I'm sure Han Hroen-Prakken's contribution to the psychoanalysis will appreciate hereafter. But her contribution to the revival of psychoanalysis in our countries, to the our own life is impossible to evaluate. On benehalf on the members of Kharkov Regional Psychoanalitical Society and on myself I express the condolence to the relatives, friends, students and patients of Han Hroen-Prakken, to everyone who knew her personally.

With deep regret,
Igor Romanov

For some time we were not able to accept the fact that such a terrible thing could happen. Everybody tried to keep the pain in his or her heart personaly as our Han's death was so schocking that we didn't want to talk about it loudly - sometimes it seems that if we stay silent nothing would happen. However, the reality is different from the fantasy...

But we are able change the awful reality somehow. Han is not with us anymore, but she will stay inside our souls forever. We'll never again hear her thoughtful and inspiring ideas, but we'll hear her inner voice inside ourselves forever. Dear Han, we are sad that we will never see You again...

But we are happy that we will be able to feel and hear You inside ourselves as You are together with everybody of us for all our lives...

Lithuanian psychoanalytic "children" of Han: Nomeda Barstiene, Rema Zidoniene, Jevgenij Sarov, Raimundas MIlasiunas and many many others...

I am very sorry to hear about the death of Han Groen-Prakken. We, also here in Finland, appreciate very much her work. Her importance especially for Eastern European Psychoanalysis has been immeasurable. I send our Society´s condolence.

Timo Niemi
President Finnish Psychoanalytical Society

Condolences.
It is with a great sorrow that we say farewell to Han Groen-Prakken .

Frederico Pereira
(President of the Portuguese Psychoanalytic Society)

Geachte familie Groen,

Als uitgever van de Koninklijke Van Gorcum in Assen heb ik enkele malen met mevrouw Groen contact gehad in verband met de uitgave van het Zeitschrift für Psychoanalytische Theorie und Praxis. Inmiddels ben ik niet meer werkzaam in Assen. Desondanks is het mij een behoefte bij haar overlijden
stil te staan. Ik zal mij haar herinneren als een warme persoonlijkheid met een gedrevenheid voor haar vakgebied en vakgenoten. Met haar overlijden condoleer ik u van harte en hoop dat u voor het gemis aan haar troost kunt vinden in de herinneringen aan haar.

Jaap Hagedoorn, Zwolle

We want to share our grief with all who knew Han Groen Prakken and was fascinated by her personality. We are lucky that we had a chance to be her students, it was unforgettable experience. In our hearts she will live as a unique woman who could make dreams true, dreams about reviving psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe.

Members of the Rostov Psychoanalytic Association
Sergey Ulyanitsky

On behalf of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society, I would like to express my deepest condolences for the death of Han Groen-Prakken, whose inspirational work for the PIEE is a constant source of admiration and respect.

Maria Teresa Hooke
Deputy President Australian Psychoanalytical Society

To All,

Our Han Groen-Prakken passing away is felt by the whole of Moscow psychoanalytic community to be an irreparable loss to our cooperation. Our hearts are filled with grief and sorrow, we wish we could be with those, who can say the last good buy to Han so dear to all of us. Let the God receive her in peace.

Elena Spirkina,
Mikhail Romashkevich,
All collegues and friends from
the psychoanalytical faculty of the IPPP (Moscow).

Geachte familie, Hierbij wil ik U mijn medeleven betuigen met het verlies van Mevrouw Groen-Prakken. Het bericht dat zij gestorven is heeft mij diep geraakt. Ik heb het grote voorrecht gehad bij haar in therapie te zijn geweest. Haar deskundige en warme benadering heeft mijn leven een blijvende positieve wending kunnen geven. Ik zal met veel respect en warme gevoelens aan haar blijven denken. Bij het gemis van haar wens ik U veel sterkte en veel steun.

Gerda Verhoeven de Rosa
Amsterdam

Lieve familie Groen. Ik wil namens mijn moeder M. Breider-Winckelmann en mijn broers Ronald en Onno onze deelneming betuigen voor het verlies van Han. Ze was een markante en bijzondere vrouw. We wensen Sjirk, Arjen, Marijke en Sjoerd en de directe familie veel sterkte bij het verwerken van dit grote verlies.

Eric Breider Amstelveen/Aalsmeer

Dear Sjirk and Family,

We have been very sad in hearing that Han has left us. She had struggled so much and for so long time against her illnesses and had always appeared back to the meetings. So it seems impossible that she will not be there.

Her death is great loss for the Dutch Society of Psychoanalysis, the Han Groen Prakken Institut, and for European Psychoanalysis in general.

When she was the president of EPF, her warm earthy concern for the member societies gave them a real feeling of belonging to a psychoanalytical community that strived to improve the often difficult communication and to promote co-operation and mutual help among them.

Her interest went beyond the frontiers of those psychoanalytical societies in Europe that had already been recognised, and focused on professionals in Eastern Europe: - those psychiatrists or psychologists who were interested in analysis but had no chance of having any training. She began to push back the boundaries and to integrate various different means of training and supervision. She did this together with John Kafka. She then organised wide eastern European meetings, which were later transformed into different summer schools. This she did with great devotion, and often at considerable cost to her own health. Her efforts were vital for the creation of the PIEE, the Han Groen Prakken Psychoanalytical Institut for Eastern Europe.

As a colleague and friend of Han?s, sharing work in the EPF, I got to know many of her interests and hopes for the Federation, and I enjoyed observing the ways she went about bringing them to fruition. I loved her warmth and her infinite capacity to lessen the burden of conflicts with her warm humour. I have never seen anybody laugh with such deep feeling. Her laughter seemed to emerge from her understanding of and sympathy towards human errors and shortcomings.

Han also had a very clear vision of the pathologies in human behaviour and the complex web of interactions within groups and institutions, and she was able to use this understanding to avoid or minimize any conflicts, so that they would not damage the organisational, integrative work of the Federation.

She will be sorely missed. But her work goes on, very especially within the Han Groen Prakken Psychoanalytical Institut for Eastern Europe.

Dear Sjirk we are with you in your sorrow

Terttu and Pere

The president of the Belgian Society and the Belgian Society offer their condolences to the Dutch Society for the death of J.Groen-Prakken. She has been a very important personality in the EFP and we all remember the work she has done for the East countries of Europe.

Jacqueline Godfrind,
President of the Belgian Society

Wij zullen Han erg missen. Na rondom 1980 een tijd actief met haar samengewerkt te hebben, werd zij later voor ons een vertrouwde en veilige aanweizgheid op de achteregrond, waarop wij - zo wisten wij - zonodig altijd een beroep zouden kunnen doen.

Eddy en Juul de Klerk - Roscam Abbing

helaas hebben wij in de Texelse courant moeten vernemen dat onze oud-buurvrouw groen is overleden, wij wensen buurman groen en zijn gezin heel veel sterkte met het verwerken van dit verlies.

henk, carolina, aisja omar en joyce zijm
Texel

L.S.

Bij terugkeer van vakantie trof ik in het NRC Handelsblad van 21 oktober 2003 het overlijdens-ericht aan van onze gewaardeerde redacteur/auteur Han Groen-Prakken. Hoewel ik wist van haar ziekte - eerder dit jaar stelde Tony Ladan mij op de hoogte van haar gezondheidsproblemen - kwam het bericht van haar overlijden toch nog als een verrassing.

Han Groen-Prakken was bepaald geen onbekende bij Van Gorcum in Assen. Er zijn in de loop der jaren diverse uitgaven van haar hand verschenen, en ook was zij bij een aantal projecten betrokken, waaronder het Zeitschrift Theorie Praxix. Zelf heb ik mevrouw Groen-Prakken slechts één keer persoonlijk mogen ontmoeten. Dat was in de periode dat zij samen met Tony Ladan de congresbundel 'Het kind in de ouder' samen-stelde, onderdeel van de zogeheten NPI-reeks, een reeks van jaarlijks verschijnende uitgaven van het Nederlands Psychoanalytisch Instituut. Dat was in 2001. Die ene ontmoeting is me bijgebleven. De rust die ze uitstraalde en het gemak waarmee ze de hobbels in de weg naar genoemde congresbundel - doorgaans niet het meest eenvoudige te realiseren genre - wist te nemen, was bewonderenswaardig. Ook als referent kon ik altijd een beroep op haar doen. Haar reactie kwam dan doorgaans snel, was summier, maar altijd to the point. Ik heb haar advies dan ook steeds opgevolgd.

In de overlijdensadvertentie stond te lezen dat haar verscheiden niet onverwacht kwam. Voor de nabestaanden is dat een troost, omdat ze naar het einde toe kunnen leven en er zich mee kunnen verzoenen. Het vakgebied verliest met haar een belangrijke representant van de psychoanalyse. Die leegte is groot.


Met oprechte deelneming, mede namens onze directeur Louwe Dijkema,
KONINKLIJKE VAN GORCUM BV

Wouter F.B. Oude Groothuis
Uitgever Medische wetenschappen en gezondheidszorg

Beste Sjirk en familie, Bij thuiskomst na vakantie vond ik de rouwkaart, toch nog plotseling. Onlangs nog sloot ik bij Han een goedlopende supervisie af. Dit stukje werk heb ik met haar kunnen afronden. Het was goed om nog gebruik te kunnen maken van zo veel ervaring als Han vertegenwoordigde. Mijn gedachten gaan vooral ook uit naar Sjirk omdat ik hem ken van een co-schap in zijn praktijk, maar dat is inmiddels lang geleden.

Veel sterkte voor u allen,
Piet Rijnierse

Dear All,

We were saddened to hear about Han Groen-Prakken.
Please accept our deepest sympathy in this time of sorrow.
We are aggrieved because of the loss of a wonderful woman and a real specialist. We all shall miss her very much.


In sympathy,
Chairman of Voronezh Regional
Psychoanalytical Society
Romanova Elena.

It is with great sorrow that we recieive the message of Han Groen-Prakkens death. Especially to those of us that have taken part in the efforts to further the knowledge and training of psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe she has been an old and much beloved friend.
On behalf of the Swedish Psychoanalytic Society I offer our condolences to Han Groen-Prakkens family and to our colleagues in the Netherlands.

Sven Lagerlöf
President Swedish Psychoanalytic Society

We want to share our grief with all who knew Han Groen Prakken and was fascinated by her personality. We are lucky that we had a chance to be her students, it was unforgettable experience. In our hearts she will live as a unique woman who could make dreams true, dreams about reviving psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe.

Members of the Rostov Psychoanalytic Association
Sergey Ulyanitsky

Dear Colleagues,

It was with profound sadness that I learnt that our dear colleague, Han Groen-Prakken, has passed away. Han has been such an important figure in the life of the International Psychoanalytical Association, and her contribution to the development of psychoanalysis, particularly in Eastern Europe where the Institute was named in her honour and in recognition of her tireless devotion and remarkable work, has been outstanding. She will be greatly missed. On a personal level, I had many opportunities to work closely with Han, mainly during our time together on the Sponsoring Committee for the Belgrade Study Group, and I would like to hereby acknowledge how much I always appreciated and valued her personality and her great friendship. Please convey my sincere condolences, both personal and on behalf of the International Psychoanalytical Association, to her family, friends and colleagues.

In deepest sympathy,
Daniel Widlöcher
President International Psychoanalytical Association

Madame, Monsieur,

Je viens d'apprendre, par Madame Duveken Engels, le déces de notre collegue, Madame Han Groen-Prakken.

Je vous adresse, au nom de la Société Psychanalytique de Paris, nos sinceres condoléances.

Nous savons combien Madame Han Groen-Prakken, dont l'Institut Européen porte actuellement son nom, avait oeuvré pour la formation des psychanalystes des pays de l'Est.

Veuillez croire, Madame, Monsieur, a nos sentiments attristés.

Alain Fine
Président de la Société Psychanalytique de Paris

Dear Han,

I have long hesitated about the form in which to address you and the fact that I hesitated so long in itself undoubtedly says something about me but also, perhaps, about you. We have known each other for a long time and in many different ways. Sitting next to you in a plane or in a full taxi on the way to a conference, or to a training in Vilnius or Amsterdam. You always carried a suitcase full of comfort and perspective thoughts and there was also always an infectious laugh between those. You have done many things in your life, and psychoanalysis played an important part in them.

You never liked big words or posh descriptions, you were down to earth, normal, affectionate, warm-hearted, humane and above all generous. You were able to portray people extremely clear with just a few simple brush strokes. Next to that you were always, for whoever needed it, subtly present as a reliable and supportive friend. For years you also worked at the Institute, during these last years you mainly did treatments. Whenever there was some trouble at the Institute, you were happy to be available, both as a good listener and with a considered response, and you were not afraid to speak your mind, even when this was not always appreciated. You were not an everybody`s friend. You had opinions and were willing to stand for them.

You not only gave others the feeling that they were seen and known but you did indeed see and know them. You very well knew the difference between the two and this made you an analyst to whom people dared to trust themselves with all their pain: they knew their pain was safe with you. Your ability to give love and to share was large, sometimes I got the feeling that you knew so well how to give because you knew from your own experience what it feels like to be deprived of it.

The last time I saw you was at Daphny`s wonderful recital, you looked tired and ill but the way you leaned against the sink and the cupboard in the kitchen was so familiar, it reminded me of all the times we stood in the doorway of the Institute after a day of training for the Amsterdam school, or at your place in your study, smoking a cigarette together, we didn`t say much then, a word or a look now and then and that was enough to feel comfortable with you. Like it says on the card: you gave much to many. You have helped me to feel what trauma and reparation, and recovering my own identity is and means. For this, I will be forever grateful: we will miss you Han.

Thijs de Wolf

Dutch Psychoanalytical Institute

Amsterdam

Geachte Mensen die om Han Groen heen stonden, als mensen die van haar hielden, voor wie zo heel veel betekend heeft en ook altijd zal blijven betekenen.

Ik kreeg een annonce en hoewel ik haar maar een ekele keer mocht ontmoeten, heeft ze op mij een onvergetelijke indruk gemaakt. Ik ben me zeer bewust dat het maar een heel armzalig klein stukje is dat ik van al wat ze voor zovelen
betekende ook kon herkennen in die enkele keren; het was niettemin van een dusdanige betekenis dat ik me bedenk dat het heel erg verdrietig is, voor U in de eerste plaats, dat ze nu dood is gegaan, toch gesloopt door ziekte. Graag wil ik U zeggen dat ik met U meeleef. En graag zou ik U willen zeggen
dat ik hoop dat de gedachtenis aan haar U tot een zegen zal zijn.

Met gevoelens van de meeste hoogachting,
Louise C.M. Blomjous- Maillettte de Buy Wenniger

Beste Sjirk, Arjen, Marijke, en Sjoerd en overige familie,

Ik wil jullie condoleren met het overlijden van Han.Ondanks het feit dat mijn ouders al overleden zijn en ik dus besef dat de generatie van onze ouders ons aan het verlaten zijn, kwam het overlijdensbericht van Han voor mij toch onverwacht. Ik heb aan Han warme herinneringen wegens de rol die zij voor mij had in mijn jeugdjaren. Vooral ook de gezellige weekends op Texel kan ik me nog als de dag van gisteren heugen. Ik wens jullie heel veel sterkte voor de komende tijd.

Anne Huisman
Lisse

On behalf of the European Psychoanalytic Federation and personally I am very sorry to hear that Han has now died. Her work for the EPF as a distinguished and far-sighted president and her inspirational drive to develop psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe will long be remembered and treasured. I am very pleased to have known her and that we were able to name the Institute in her honour.

David Tuckett,
President EPF/FEP

Met deze zend ik mij sympatie en condolances aan iedereen, met de verlies van jullie geliefde vrouw, moeder, schoonmoeder, oma, zuster en tante, Han Groen-Prakken. Ik zal haar altijd herinneren voor de vriendelijkheid en gastvrijheid die ze mij altijd geschonken heeft.

"Gone, but not forgotten"

Cecilia Jonker Adelaide
South Australia

On behalf of the Italian Psychoanalytical Association we want to express our deep and sincere condolences for the death of Han Groen-Prakken. Kind regards.

Andreas Giannakoulas
President

On behalf of the Spanish Psychoanalytical Society I want to express to colleagues and family our sincere condolences for the death of Han-Goen Prakken Warm regards :

Guillermo Bodner

On behalf of the Madrid Psychoanalytical Association I would like to express my deepest condolences for the death of Han Groen-Prakken, who has worked very hard for psychoanalysis, and whom we are very grateful for her work in EPF.

Manuela Utrilla
President Madrid Psychoanalytical Association

On behalf of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society we wish to express our condolences for the death of Han Groen Prakken to you and all the members of the Dutch Psychoanalytic Society. The members of the Swiss Society who knew her as an organiser and supervisor from the "Mitteleuropäische Arbeitstagungen" and as a founding member and former editor of the "Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Theorie und Praxis" will thankfully remember her.

Sympathetic wishes
Betty Raguse
President

Dear Colleagues,

It was with deep sorrow that I learnt the sad news about Han Groen-Prakken.

For more than twenty years Han and I worked together in the EPF Executive and Council, and we experienced together the adventure of the opening up towards psychoanalysis of Eastern European countries.

We all know that, as President of the EPF, Han made the very first steps towards the development of psychoanalysis in Eastern European countries, well before the fall of the Iron Curtain. Her great courage and devotion in assisting Eastern European colleagues to discover psychoanalysis and to train as psychoanalysts was essential, and we should all be most grateful for her creativeness, her intelligence and her open-mindedness in dealing with all the difficulties we encountered in Eastern Europe during that time.

It was also Han's initiative to create the seminar for Eastern Europeans, where analysts from Western European Societies were able to meet with Eastern European colleagues and thus provide opportunities for much future scientific co-operation. Han, as a member of both the EPF Committee for Eastern Europe and the IPA Sub-Committee for Eastern Europe, was most helpful in providing our international associations with the possibility for friendly and fruitful co-operation. It was thus highly justified that the Psychoanalytical Institute for Eastern Europe was named after her.

She will always be remembered for her warm and deep involvement in psychoanalysis and in her friendships. I would like to convey my deepest sympathy to all her colleagues at the Dutch Society, as well as to the members of the Han Groen-Prakken Psychoanalytic Institute for Eastern Europe. Please also convey my sincere condolences to her family and friends.

Alain Gibeault
International Psychoanalytical Association

On behalf of the Norwegian Psychoanalytical Society we want ton express our sincere condolences for the death of Han Groen-Prakken.

Anders Zachrisson
President

I would like to join all friends and colleagues of Han Groen-Prakken in expressing my deepest condolences at her death. It is a great loss for all of us who knew her.

Nadia Kozhouharova

We'd like to offer our condolences to all relatives friends and collegues of dear dear Han Groen Prakken. We feel bereft alongside with them. We'll always remmember the energy, enthusiasm and courige wich she put into the impossible business of helping us all to get into the world of Psychoanalysis

Members of the Moscow Society of Psychoanalysts
A. Barsuchenko,L.Bederova,L.Jeulenene, P.Kachalov, L.Komarova, V.Potapova, O.Papsueva, A.Thostov A.Zinchenko et ell.

In the name of the DPV (Deutsche Psychoanalytische Vereinigung - German Psychoanalytic Association) I condole with the family and the colleagues of Han Groen-Prakken on her death. Those who were closely connected with her lost a cordial and warm person, who easily made contacts between individuals and groups. In the past she was involved in and was promoting meetings of the Central European Psychoanalytic Societies, then she found a new and important field of activity in developing Psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe. We all have much to regret this bereavement and will keep her in our kind remembrance.

Prof. Dr. G.J. Bruns (Pres. DPV)
Bremen

 Dear Sjirk,
 
It is some time ago that Han has been buried and that I, gratefully and full of sorrow, had been among those to witness the cremation ceremony at Driehus, close to the Sea, that wonderful and exceptional day of October 23, 2003. The Art Déco room in which we all had gathered was illuminated by the bright and cold sun from the outside, providing a solemn and peaceful atmosphere that was enlivened by words of sorrow, love and respect, by tears and by laughter; all in memory of Han Groen-Prakken. With the exception of Thijs de Wolf and Jaap Tijsma, only members of Han´s family spoke. Her sister and her children moved the audience and brought Han back to us in a very lively way. Numerous were the memories of this wonderful mother, wife and colleague, full of warmth and love for people, with a never ceasing sense of humour; and for a while she was again amongst us in that vivified atmosphere. Most speeches were in Dutch and I would have loved to have understood all the details of the many beautiful stories around this woman of such a unique stature. Jaap Tijsma has been so kind as to translate his homage on Han to me.
 
It came as a surprise, unexpectedly, and I feel embarrassed to confess that I could not avoid the feeling that in the end I had to realize that she belonged to her family and to her own language. Of course she does so, and my fully inappropriate jealousy only reveals to what extent Han was also part of another life. So much had she been "ours", so fully devoted was she to her self-made commitment to Eastern Europe. On the occasion of her 70th birthday, one of her children had said that they never really knew what her mother was doing in the outside world, and to what extent she was involved with other things next to her children, to whom she was a dependable and caring mother. So, obviously, she had the unique talent of always providing the feeling of being fully present with whomever she was; with ample time, never in a hurry, never distracted.
 
In her other world she was the English speaking and warm hearted friend of many, despite being both a shrewd and prospective politician and an open and tough opponent when this seemed unavoidable to her. She was full of courage and relentless stamina once she had decided to do what she felt right. She did not shy away from risking to make enemies, and yet she was still open to be friends again. Or, at least, that is how it looked to me; for who really knew her?
 
To those of us who worked with her in Eastern Europe she was the architect, if not both mother and midwife, of Psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe after 1987. That year Han had become President of The European Psychoanalytical Federation. The same year the Hungarian Society, with the approval of the EPF, organized a Conference in Budapest on "Working on Trauma in the Analysis of Adults and Children". The idea of providing an opportunity where East and West could meet had been implemented. During the breaks in the programme Han was approached by Czech, Polish, Yugoslav and East-Germans wanting to know how they could get in touch with the Western psychoanalytic Communities. In her address on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the EPF (Bulletin 48, Spring 1997) Han, in her both humane and succinct style, describes these first steps into unknown territory. She consulted György Hidas for advice on how to travel and she got a threefold warning: "1. allow sufficient time for each visit; 2. don´t travel by train; 3. don´t go alone".
 
1988 saw her and Ron Baker in Belgrade. One week later, with Eero and Marita Rechardt, she visited Vilnius in Lithuania. The day of their arrival, October 7 1988, turned out to be the day Lithuania declared its Independence! Han was thrilled by this experience and continued travelling. Soon the Berlin wall fell and now it really made sense to increase the efforts at meeting the requests coming from the Eastern colleagues. "Encouraging Psychoanalysis in Eastern Europe" had become her programme.
 
 
Once, in 1991, the East European Committee of the European Psychoanalytical Federation was established, Han and Eero Rechardt added one further principle of greatest importance: to go by invitation only. Han would gladly respond when there came an invitation from one of the psychoanalytic groups in Eastern Europe. She could not be misunderstood as having missionary intentions; her visits were in no way impositions. She would present a paper, "if the group wished, and we asked for at least one meeting in which someone presented clinical material..." (Bulletin 48). In the ensuing work with her friends and colleagues in the East European Committee of the EPF, some further principles proved supportive of the task of getting East Europeans to form Psychoanalytic groups to establish curricula, especially to meet Psychoanalysis as it is practised and thought about in the established Societies, and above all to foster relationships with Western analysts and to teach how to orient themselves in the Western Psychoanalytic world. It is said with great respect that simultaneously similar attempts had been going on by many other individuals, of European Societies, who travelled East.
 
As the experience grew some further principles were added. For the East European groups to be supported the prerequisite was interest in clinical Psychoanalysis. This helped to avoid getting entangled in political competition over who gets support. Thus representing a possibly powerful institution never was a basis for concern. Instead, individuals interested in Psychoanalysis and able to form a group that could initiate a teaching curriculum became the focus of support. A critical issue always was the financing of the Seminars and Conferences organized by the East European Committee. Han was very sensitive to aspects of pride and initiated as soon as possible that a participation fee was payed by the East European participants on the basis of feasability. The greater part was payed by the Western participants who deserve eternal thank for their generosity. Furthermore, in Conferences, chairpersons had to be training-analysts so that the East European hosts, the participants and Western sceptics, would know from the start that the intention was to support the development of Psychoanalysis. The EPF-East European Committee´s activities would be restricted to East European countries with groups that had no status in the International Psychoanalytic Association. In this way a distinction could be maintained that proved very helpful in two ways. One, the Committee´s activities were restricted to teaching and getting East and West to meet each other. In contrast training, training criteria and setting standards, remained a matter of concern for the International Psychoanalytical Association. Two, the task of the EPF to do postgraduate training was not challenged. As a result, albeit supported by many other factors, this clear-cut distinction helped later on to establish an IPA-EPF cooperation in Eastern Europe that eventuated in the foundation of "The Han Groen-Prakken Psychoanalytic Institute for Eastern Europe". This came about as a miracle. For Han had sadly and furiously experienced once before a miscarriage of an attempt by IPA and EPF in setting up a conjoint East European enterprise. This time the President of the EPF, David Tuckett, could be convinced of the useful work and the applied principles by his East European Committee. Luck helped and he participated in one of the EE Conferences, this time on board a ship starting in Kiev and going down the Dnjeper. Both charmed and convinced by this experience he threw in all his administrative boldness to help create the Han Groen-Prakken Institute. This happened in 2002 and the Institute had, as its initial staff, Paolo Fonda as Director and Aira Laine, Gilbert Diatkine, Gábor Szönyi and Michael Rotmann as Associate Directors, the latter one being soon replaced by Tamara Stajner-Popovic.
 
 
Before that could happen, however, there was no shortage of initial opposition within the EPF based on the assumption that the most that could be expected to develop was some sort of Psychotherapy. Han Groen-Prakken proved her critics wrong. In her tenacious, ingenious, original, shrewed and prudent planning she was always ahead of the next step necessary to reach her goal, which she would later define as The Pan-European Psychoanalytical Federation. While the EPF-East European Committee was about to begin and refine its teaching work in Seminars and, later on, Summer Schools carefully avoiding all aspects of training, Han kept an eye on the future which was setting up Psychoanalytical Societies in Eastern Europe with IPA-status. To this end she renewed the interest of the IPA in Eastern Europe. Supported by the indefatigable John Kafka she informed the IPA-President Robert Wallerstein and invited Charles Hanly, Chairman of the New Groups Committee of the IPA, to the 3rd East European Seminar in Pultusk in Poland in 1991. Charles Hanly could be convinced that for a provisional duration of time the standards for obtaining membership in the IPA had to be lowered for the emergent groups in Eastern Europe to have a chance of ever qualifying as an IPA-institution.
 
The greatest obstacle to reach this goal for the East European colleagues was the impossibility to obtain training analysis, simply because there were no training analysts in the former Communist countries with the exception of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. In the past, it had been shown that training abroad, even if that close as Finland, lead to emigration. Eastern Europe, however, needed trained persons to stay. 
 
Relentlessly, Han continued searching for political influence in order to make Psychoanalysis in Eastern European thrive. With John Kafka as co-chair and Paolo Fonda and Gary Goldsmith as members she chaired the IPA-East-European-Sub-Committee, thereby securing the beneficial support of the IPA. Simultaneously, the East-European Committee of the EPF, chaired by Eero Rechardt and later on by Michael Rotmann continued organizing the well known Conferences, Summer-School, and eventually adding as a third the East European Seminar for Candidates. In retrospect it is surprising to see that Han was able to share influencial posts. In doing so she was able to take care of herself and avoided getting overwhelmed or immersed by too many assignments. So, she knew where her political influence was mostly needed and she co-chaired with John Kafka the above mentioned IPA committee. Simultaneously, the EPF-East European Committee could be run by other people
 
Despite the fact that what we did still looked like a drop of water on a hot stove there was a development that only in retrospect could be encompassed as a singularly fortunate complementary series of joint efforts by many European Societies and individual members of the British, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, some other European and American Societies, who set up various kinds of theoretical teaching and, later on, training. Most likely it will never be known for sure, but I greatly believe that Han´s dedication to Eastern Europe and her unswerving hope for success was an identificatory focus for many Western analysts. They all did something in Eastern Europe that initially was in no way coordinated. The East European Committee members called it transitional chaos, which indeed it was. Meanwhile, Han and her co-workers had created a most conducive atmosphere. In my view, three independent developments gained momentum and eventually enhanced each other cooperatively. One was the quite experimental and transitory "invention" of "shuttle-analysis" designed conjointly by Eberhard Haas, Igor Kadyrov, Horst Kaechele, Anja Kazanskaja and Hans-Volker Werthmann. Secondly, this was taken up primarily by some Russian colleagues who took the great pains and efforts of sacrificing much of their private lives in the passionate attempt at reaching personal psychoanalysis and training abroad while still not leaving home. Thirdly, this was followed by the eventual growth and availability of East European training analysts in Prague and Vilnius.
 
As Han had an exceptional overview of the international psychoanalytic world she knew those Western colleagues eventually able and willing to help with staffing the East European Conference, the East European Summer School (which was set up conjointly by Endel Talvik from Tallinn and Han) and the EE Seminar for Candidates (Advanced School), as well as to know whom to invite as speakers to the Conferences. So it turned out to be one of her many surprising and successful ideas to organize the Conference in Kiev in 2001 on Violence by inviting speakers from Northern Ireland, Israel, Vilnius and Belgrade. She wanted to free our East European colleagues from the burden of feeling themselves to be the only victims of terror.
 
It is no exaggeration to call Han a very exceptional person when thinking about what she achieved and how she did this. I am certain that everyone who knew her will gladly share in emphasizing her unique warmhearted friendliness, based on firmness and on her always supportive attitude toward people. It so happened in 1991, at the end of a Conference on Training in London, that she asked me if I wanted to become treasurer of the East European Committee. She knew that I had been visiting Vilnius. I was horrified because being treasurer was the one assignment I was determined never to accept. To be sure, I knew that I would never achieve being a sound administrator and accountant. So, over sherry and her inevitable cigarette, in my Teutonic way I asked her all kinds of questions. Yet, in the end, she said that I had forgotten to ask one important question and this was: "is it fun?"

So finally I agreed, being charmed by her subtle sense of humour,

her dedication to the East European cause

and because she made me feel that she was deeply reliable.
 
And  she proved right, fun we did have: be it in the deep snow in the forests around Vilnius when at the end of the day we would gather around the burning fireplace with a good bottle and our East European friends who held their liquor well; be it at the hot beach of the Baltic Sea at Lohusalu in Estonia where Endel Talvik and Han had invented the East European Psychoanalytic Summer School; or be it on the visiting tour of the Red Square in Moscow where we met the old communist tradition of ransacking bags what infuriated you, Sijrk, because it came as a sudden attack. She knew German well but disliked to speak it. Thus we spoke English almost all the time. Once she intimated that she loved only two Germans, Heinz Henseler and me. Such was the sad reality which I respected. On another occasion, when we talked about the limitation of people, she gave me the only interpretation ever: "you are impulsive". That, too, was right – and helpful. I have been greatly enriched by working with Han and much I did just for love of her. Over the years in our Committee work, at first by fax and later by e-mail, countless letters have been exchanged. Again and again I tried to copy her simple and friendly style of writing a letter to whomever it was. Every so often I failed although it looked so simple. She would mention all facts, one by one, apparently no big deal; and yet, she always managed to make it a personal, friendly, letter full of concern. I believe, one of her secrets is that she never became sentimental.
 
Then she fell ill with the ulcer on her foot which stubbornly defied all efforts at healing. It seemed that for about one year she withdrew almost completely, turning inside herself, strongly determined eventually to get better. And her tenacious fight was successful for a while. She travelled again to the Conference of the IPA in Nice, in 2001, and in 2002 as Chair of the Sponsoring Committee to Belgrade, which was the group she helped most over the years. The same year she even participated, as teacher, in the newly established Seminar for East European Candidates in Palic, Yugoslavia. Then she became ill again. Shortly before her death we talked for quite a while on the telephone, exchanging views like always. She sounded well composed but had given up hope and said that she has had enough. I am sad that she died too early, not only for me but for the many to whom she was close, especially for you. The reason for addressing this letter to you is that, in my imagination, you, your house, your children and your closest relatives have been the centre of Han´s life. So this letter turned out to have a twofold goal. I want to tell you in which ways I will remember Han and, in doing so, I made up my mind once again to be sort of talking with her through writing about her. This took much time during which she, whom I miss very much, became close again.
 
Han Groen-Prakken´s memory I shall keep forever, and I wish you, Sjirk, a good way of dealing with your mourning, your solitude and your going-on living.
 
I send you my warm wishes
 
Michael Rotmann