ABSTRACT
It is in a spirit of very deep gratitude and friendship that I would like to make a contribution to this volume in celebration of Joe Lichtenberg. I met Joe almost 50 years ago when I came with my family directly from Europe to the Sheppard-Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson, MD. Joe was at that time, I believe, acting Director of Training. In 1964, on the first Scientific Day there, he was discussant of a paper I had written with a colleague. This paper addressed chronic severe depersonalization and the close relationship between this clinically important state and shame. I do not remember Joe’s remarks except that he rightly used the metaphor of the three blind men describing the elephant, each from his particular perspective. In my youthful brashness, I was not amused by being viewed as giving just one idiosyncratic perspective, but I am sure now that Joe was right.
