Dr. Paul Lippmann

Dr. Paul Lippmann, renowned psychoanalyst, loving husband, father and grandfather, died peacefully on March 14 ^th at his home in Stockbridge surrounded by his loving family, after a long battle with cancer.

Paul was born in 1934. He grew up in Coney Island, Paterson, New Jersey and Staten Island, New York, where he worked in his family’s candy store with his late parents, Max, and Florence Lipshitz. As a child, Paul spent his summers at Camp Wo-Chi-Ca, a progressive children’s camp, where he met and became close to Paul Robeson, with whom he studied acting, and where he received instruction in music from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

Dr. Lippmann went on to study psychology at City College and New York University, where he also served as a faculty member. He completed post-graduate studies at William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Institute in New York City, where he would go on to become a fellow, training analyst, supervising analyst, and president of the White Society. He was also a fellow at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, where he trained alongside Erik Erikson and in his later career became a supervising analyst, sharing his love and knowledge of psychology with the next generation of analysts. He was associate professor of psychology at Columbia University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was invited to lecture on psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. He delivered a series of lectures at the California Dream Society on the use of dream interpretation in the psychotherapeutic environment.

Dr. Lippmann spent many years in private practice in New York and Stockbridge. He cofounded, along with Dr. Eugene Talbot, a free mental-health services clinic in Stockbridge. He also cofounded the Western Massachusetts/Albany Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology (WMAPP) and was founder of the Stockbridge Dream Society. He authored many academic papers on subjects ranging from psychoanalytic theory to the connection between shamanism and psychology. He was author as well of the book Nocturnes (On Listening to Dreams) .

Paul was an avid skier and runner. He maintained a lifelong love of music, playing guitar and piano. A student of art in Paris, he went on to become a well-respected painter whose work on themes of the Holocaust and lost family faces appeared throughout the Berkshires. Throughout his life, he was a firm believer in community service and social justice. In the 1960s, he worked to support the defense team of several members of the Black Panther Party.

Paul and his wife, Dr. Frances Lippmann, came together over a love of psychology. They were married in 1958 and raised two children, John Lippmann, and Eve Jennings of Stockbridge, to whom Paul passed on his love of the outdoors, music and art. Paul and Frances traveled widely but were rooted deeply in the local community. Together, they helped to cofound Hevreh of Southern Berkshire.

Paul is predeceased by his parents, his older brother Meyer and sister-in-law Annette Lipshitz. He is survived by his wife Frances; their son John and his wife Jennifer of Stockbridge and their children Heru, Phoenix and Maxwell; their daughter Eve and her husband Sean Jennings of Stockbridge and their children Lily Jennings and Joe Jennings, as well as Joe’s wife Cate and their children, Aurelia and Sonia. He is also survived by his nieces and nephews, Marian Lewek; Ellen and Larry Tannenbaum, Fern and Yussie Winerich and numerous grand nieces and nephews.

SERVICES – A celebration of the life of Paul Lippmann will be held on Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 11:30am at Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home, 426 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230. Burial will follow at the family plot in the Stockbridge Cemetery and will then be followed by a reception at the Red Lion Inn. To send remembrances to his family please go to www.finnertyandstevens.com