Nothing Human is Alien

Otto Will was the consummate psychotherapist. He could reach those people others considered beyond recovery. He wrote no books that capture the subtleties of his clinical approach but, instead, conveyed it to students through well-told stories. He was a contradiction. Trained as a psychoanalyst, he was not bound by Freudian theory or metapsychology. He worked with a broad spectrum of patients, especially those diagnosed as schizophrenic, doing so without medication. He believed fully that the relationship between therapist and patient was the key element in repairing damaged lives. In that relationship he sought to discover the person burdened with the role of “patient.” He asked, “Who are you?” and recognized that to share the answer to this question, one must feel respected, valued, and emotionally safe; one must know that her therapist is a complicated and flawed, but authentic, person hiding none of their own humanity. Otto Will realized that rote technique was often a dead end and that each therapist and patient created a means of relating to one another. He was dedicated to each person who put their trust in him and, though sometimes wanting to escape from what he learned of himself, he instead used this knowledge as a point of connection. His success in enlarging the lives of those with whom he worked could be breathtaking. This is the story of how a boy from a traumatic background became able to free others from the psychological shackles that bound them. Like every life story, Otto Will’s includes fear, pain, and growth — but most of all, hope.