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xiii Foreword Many years ago, Gottfried Bloch and I met for the first time in Southern California. I knew little about him, but enough to assume that he would never trust a Gentile German again, not even one who had left Germany, because he did not wish to live under fascistic rule. So we maintained a formal collegial distant relationship for quite some time until we became good friends. When I got sick, deadly sick, I did not expect to live and was almost destroyed by death anxiety, fear, despair and unwillingness to surrender to what seemed to be the unavoidable. Friedl saw me in the intensive care unit and said little, as is his way. The little he said, however, marked the turning point in my return to the living. He said, approximately, “When I was in situations where I was quite sure to have come to the end of the road and would not live out the next day, I trained myself to think: I am not dead yet. I am still alive. I will live now—tomorrow I will see what happens.” I cannot say how much these words helped me when my heart seemed to refuse to beat the way it was supposed to beat. I did not surrender or resign, just continued to live, day after day. I have not experienced what destiny has brought to my friend’s life. I have learned something from him about how to live, to love life, and not give in to bitterness. I have learned how not to give up, to hope, to go on and live as long as life lasts. The fact that Gottfried Bloch survived, started a normal life again, emigrated twice, lived through great difficult times and personal tragedy and was fated to live, is for him a mystery of chance or luck. I cannot accept such an answer, but have hardly anything better to say. If I look at him and listen as an analyst, I would say: “I do not understand this life, but I will listen until it makes sense.” This had happened to a small degree. It was not good luck repeatedly—that would mean to believe in a divine providence that protected him. Whatwasitthatkepthimgoing?Itseemstohavebeentheacceptance, the surrender to the cruelty of the day. Not hoping for better times but xiv waiting for them anyway. He took survival as his duty, like Job in the Bible. The Book of Job’s message is that life has to be lived even when divine powers turn against us. In Gottfried Bloch’s life, the powers were human and therefore impossible to deal with, to surrender to, to accept, only possible to survive them by hanging on. He suffered without calling it heroism but simply did not stop living. My friend does not want to be praised for strength or courage but understood in human terms. Martin Grotjahn, M.D. Professor Emeritus University of Southern California Department of Psychiatry Los Angeles, Calif. 1988 (died September 1990) Foreward [3.145.8.42] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 11:06 GMT) Unfree Associations Family Torn Apart ...