It is with great sadness that PCC lost two of its members, Naomi Lieberman, PsyD, FIPA and Yvonne Hansen, PhD, FIPA.

PCC member and Training Analyst, Annie Reiner, PhD, FIPA memorialized Naomi Lieberman with the following:

On January 20, 2022, Naomi Lieberman died of complications of cancer, after a painful illness.

Dr. Naomi Lieberman was one of the most intuitive and gifted analysts I have known, who brought her talents to PCC in several ways. Her natural intuitive sense guided her work as an analyst always, and I was impressed by what seemed to be an inherent respect for the need to find the truth of any analytic encounter. She had the patience and courage not to impose theoretical knowledge before she could get a real feeling for what was happening in the session. I say this was natural to her, for I do not know where she picked it up, although it is something that was central to what Bion described as the essential psychoanalytic perspective. However, I noticed this in Dr. Lieberman even before she was introduced to Bion’s work. Apparently, she trusted her own intuition enough to allow herself to feel her way into the session, rather than relying on already known theories. We can’t afford to lose analysts with the daring to work in this way.

Naomi’s sensitivity about the internal world, and about early infancy in particular, was evident in her work with patients, but also in her role as part of the faculty of PCC’s Infant Observation program. For years, she was a popular and respected teacher of what was, and is, a central part of PCC’s psychoanalytic training. Related to this was her equally important contribution to the innovative group, THRIVE, developed by PCC member Julie McCaig with a small group of PCC analysts who worked at educating the doctors and nurses in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) at UCLA. It was an attempt to educate the medical staff by providing some understanding of the emotional needs of their most vulnerable patients. This was helpful in developing and disseminating ideas about the needs and very early mental life of infants, to support them with the necessary treatment of their minds as well as their bodies. But it was also an opportunity for the participants in THRIVE to learn more about primitive mental life through courageous, often painful observation of the trauma these small babies had to endure. This spoke to what I saw as Dr. Lieberman’s courage and rare openness to these early states of mind that are the basis of all psychoanalytic work.

Naomi was also a dear friend, a fun-loving and unique personality, whose presence I continue to miss on a daily basis. 

—Dr. Annie Reiner