On January 23, 2021 the Tampa Bay Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies lost after a brief illness one of its emerita faculty, and the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society one of its long time members and former presidents. Horacio Arias, MD was 96 years old and had, up until a few weeks before, been practicing part time his craft as psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. At a Memorial Service (by zoom) on February 6, 2021 what stood out to most was his enduring kindness and wisdom.
I knew Horacio for more than twenty years and became accustomed to his thick accent (born in Colombia and trained in Kleinian psychoanalysis), so much so that those on first encountering him would ask me to repeat what he had said. One thing he said loudly and repeatedly to me, by his actions, was 'I'm always in your corner.' He had my back, in part, because of his Kleinian insistence to see whole objects and not just part object. A much needed skill, I think, in these times.
