Lore Reich Rubin, M.D. 1928 – 2024
Lore Reich Rubin MD, 95, an eminent psychoanalyst born and raised in the Viennese world of Sigmund Freud and the daughter of Wilhelm Reich, died on February 24 at her home in Seattle. In failing health, and after discussions with her children, Dr. Rubin made use of the Washington State law allowing death with dignity and chose to end her own life consciously and courageously. Throughout her life and to the very end she possessed and wielded a powerful intellect and an uncommon capacity to interpret human behavior.
Lore Reich was born in Vienna, Austria on March 11, 1928 to Wilhelm and Annie Reich, a power couple in the small group of Viennese psychoanalysts who trained with Freud in the 1920s and early 1930s. An older sister, Eva, was born in 1924. Her parents divorced in 1933 and Annie and the two girls fled Europe, the holocaust and imminent war, arriving in New York City in 1938. Seeking places to hike and walk as in Europe, Annie eventually discovered Northern New England and Mt. Desert Island, which became a frequent vacation destination for Eva and Lore.
Lore attended Oberlin College before transferring to New York University where she earned a BA in 1949. She completed a medical degree at New York University in 1954, a residency in psychiatry at Albert Einstein School of Medicine in 1958, and graduated from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1962. In the late 1940s she met Julius (Julie) Rubin, and they were married in 1947 when Lore was 18 years old. After Lore spent a brief period in private practice in Manhattan, the couple moved to Pittsburgh in 1964 when Julie took a position in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh.
From 1964 to 2000 Lore maintained an active private practice and served as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute. Throughout her career Lore was active in the wider psychoanalytic community, writing, teaching and serving in professional organizations. Her teaching focused on ego psychology, character structure and psychoanalytic theory.
During these years in Pittsburgh (1964-2010), Lore and Julie raised a family and were deeply engaged in neighborhood and community life. The family enjoyed vacations at a shared farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. In addition, over many decades Lore maintained her connection to coastal Maine near where Eva had a medical practice. Julie died in 2004, Eva Reich died in 2008, and Lore moved to Seattle to be near her children on the West Coast in 2010.
Later in her career, in articles and in talks, she illuminated the importance of Wilhelm Reich’s early contributions to psychoanalysis and social psychology and clarified controversies surrounding her father. In an autobiography published in 2021, Memories of a Chaotic World: Growing Up as the Daughter of Annie Reich and Wilhelm Reich, Lore describes a childhood surrounded by luminaries of the psychiatric and psychoanalytic world and, at the same time conveys the life-disrupting collision between fascism and democracy in Europe.
Lore grew up skiing in the Alps with her family, and later took up tennis with Julius; she enjoyed both activities throughout much of her life. She held an eclectic appreciation for paintings and sculpture, historical letters and biographies, as well as literature. Her studies led to a deep knowledge of psychoanalytic history and its intersection with world history. Additionally, she remained throughout her life a dedicated advocate for reproductive rights.
She is survived by her children Toby and Erica; a paternal half-brother Peter Reich; a niece, Renata Moise, and five grandchildren. Donations in Lore’s name may be made to Planned Parenthood.
-This obituary was provided by the family of Lore Reich Rubin
