沉重悼念Dr. Elise Snyder
我是昨天（January 9, 2026）从电子邮件里知晓Elise去世的消息的。当时我见完当天的最后一位来访，翻看手机里的邮件信息放松一下。看到CAPA的邮件以为是催我交会员费的，但点开一看是Elise 去世的消息。一种巨大的悲伤顿时涌上心头。
Elise 是一名精神病专家和精神分析师，她有着非常成功的职业生涯。她毕业于耶鲁大学医学院，是美国精神分析学会董事会（American Psychoanalytic Association Board of Directors）33年之久，曾任美国精神分析师专业学会（American College of Psychoanalysts）的主席，是中美精神分析联盟（China American Psychoanalytic Alliance，CAPA）的创始人。
如果说有谁在推动精神分析跨文化传播做出的贡献最大，Elise 一定是其中之一。2001年，Elise 访问中国期间发现中国心理治疗人才非常缺乏，开始筹建CAPA，2006年正式成立，提供连续远程课程，以及低价个人体验和督导。二十多年的时间里，已经为中国培养了数百名精神分析取向的心理咨询师和督导师，成为中国心理咨询界非常重要的力量，很多咨询师都以能被CAPA录取感到骄傲。一些CAPA的毕业生Elise本人也得到很多中国心理咨询师的热爱。
多年以来，Elise都孜孜不倦地工作着，我从2007年起就参与对CAPA学员的个人分析、教学、督导等工作中，因此将近二十年的时间里，跟她有过很多的邮件联系，常常被她的犀利、周到、坚持、和精力所折服。疫情期间，她在CAPA内组织支持小组，使大家能够在疫情期间的封闭、恐惧、紧张中互相支持、交流。因此，每个礼拜天都能和她在小组中见面，对她有了更多的了解。她经常受病痛的困扰，但她一直保持乐观。这个小组在疫情结束后还存在了很长时间，最后结束时，她已是90岁高龄了，除了有house keeper来帮她做清洁之外，还独立生活，并坚持工作。记得24年她email给我，说小组成员的名字记不起来了，让我把名字告诉她，心里就有些担忧。但后来打电话给她，发现她依然思路清晰，声音洪亮，依然是那个熟悉的Elise。
昨天在邮件中收到Elise去世的消息，感到很难接受，悲痛之情无法自抑。我把她看作我的榜样的，不仅仅因为她在精神分析上的建树还因为她作为女性所表现出来的智慧、坚持和坚强。我曾希望能和她一样坚持工作到很大年纪。我感觉和她有共通之处，我们都热爱自己的工作。她的去世是个巨大的丧失，从个人的角度，也从她所建立的这么大的一个精神分析群体而言，都是如此。
我们不会忘记，有这么一个人老奶奶（在CAPA学生对她的称呼--grandma），因为她的远见和勇气，改变了很多人的职业方向，使很多人受益（学员、来访者，以及和她一起使CAPA成为现实的很多人）。
只愿天堂里的Elise只有美丽，没有病痛。
（Francy Wang）
In Memory of Dr. Elise Snyder
I learned of Elise’s passing on January 9, 2026, through an email. I had just finished seeing my last patient of the day and was checking messages on my phone to relax for a moment. When I saw an email from CAPA, I assumed it was a routine notice for paying the membership due which I have forgot to renew it. Instead, it carried the news of Elise’s death. In that moment, a deep and unexpected wave of grief came over me.
Dr. Elise Snyder was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose professional life was both distinguished and deeply consequential. She was a graduate of Yale School of Medicine, served for thirty-three years on the Board of Directors of the American Psychoanalytic Association, was President of the American College of Psychoanalysts, and was one of the founding figures of the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA). Yet for those of us who worked closely with her, Elise was far more than her titles.
Elise was among the earliest and most devoted advocates for the cross-cultural transmission of psychoanalysis. During a visit to China in 2001, she recognized the profound shortage of trained psychotherapists and felt compelled to respond. That recognition eventually became CAPA, formally established in 2006, offering sustained distance education, along with accessible personal analysis and supervision. Over more than two decades, CAPA has helped train hundreds of psychoanalytically oriented therapists and many supervisors in China and has become a vital force in the development of the field. Many clinicians take great pride in having been admitted to CAPA, and Elise herself was deeply loved and respected by countless Chinese psychotherapists
I began working with CAPA in 2007, while I was in my psychoanalysis training in TICP, providing personal analysis, teaching, and supervision to candidates. Over nearly twenty years, Elise and I exchanged many emails, and I came to admire her keen mind, careful attention, persistence, and remarkable energy. She worked tirelessly and with unwavering commitment
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Elise organized support groups within CAPA so that members could stay connected and support one another amid isolation, fear, and uncertainty. These groups met weekly, and I meet with her and other several group members weekly, and through the meetings, I came to know her more personally. Although she was often troubled by physical illness and suffered various pains, she remained consistently optimistic and emotionally present to others.
The group continued long after the pandemic had ended. By the time it concluded, Elise was already almost ninety years old. With the help of a housekeeper for cleaning, she continued to live independently and to work tirelessly. I remember that in 2024 she emailed me to say she could no longer recall the names of the group members and asked me to send them to her. I felt a quiet concern. Yet when I later spoke with her by phone, her thinking was as clear as before, her voice strong, and her presence unmistakably herself.
Receiving the news of Elise’s death has been deeply painful and difficult to accept. I secretly see her as my role model and a mentor not only for her keen psychoanalysis knowledge and insights but also as women who is intelligent, determined, and strong. I secretly thought I will work to my senior age as her did. I feel her absence keenly—personally, professionally, and within the larger psychoanalytic community she helped shape. May Elise now rest in peace, free from illness and suffering, and remembered for the generosity, vision, and devotion she brought to her work and to all of us who had the privilege of knowing her.
（Francy Wang）