Speak of Me as I Am: The Life and Work of Masud Khan

163 Pages·1994·4.19 MB·English

by  Judy Cooper

JUDY COOPER
SPEAK OF ME AS I AM

THE LIFE A ND WORK OF

MASUD KHAN

KARNAC BOOKS
SPEAK OF ME AS I AM
Soft you; a word or two before you go.

I have done the state some service, and they know't.

No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice. . . .

[Shakespeare, "Othello", Act V, Scene ii: 338-343]
SPEAK OF ME AS I AM

The Life and Work of Masud Khan
Judy Cooper
Foreword by
Eric Rayner
London
K A R N AC B O O KS
The author gratefully acknowledges permission to reprint excerpts
from the following:
"Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night", by Dylan Thomas, from The
Poems, by permission of the publisher, Dent, and by permission of
the trustees for the copyrights of Dylan Thomas; used by permis­
sion of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
"The Cocktail Party", byT. S. Eliot, by permission of the publisher,
Faber and Faber Ltd.; copyright 1950 by T. S. Eliot and renewed
1978 by Esme Valerie Eliot, reprinted by permission of Harcourt
Brace & Company.
First published in 1993 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
118 Finchley Road,
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 1993 by Judy Cooper
The rights of Judy Cooper to be identified as author of this work
have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of
the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988,
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
in any form, by any process or technique,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
Cooper, Judy
Speak of Me as I Am: Life and Work of Masud Khan
I. Title
150.195092
ISBN 978-1-85575-044-9
Printed in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter
In memory of
myfather,
whom I knew all too briefly

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the willingness
of various psychoanalysts to share with me their memories
of Masud Khan. I have quoted each of them extensively and
wish to thank Arthur Couch, Use Hellman, Nasir Ilahi, Pearl
King, Baljeet Mehra, Charles Rycroft, Victor Smirnoff, and
Mary Twyman, who all illuminated different aspects of Khan
and his life. In one session Margret Tonnesmann managed to
clarify Khan's theories more convincingly than I could have
drawn from any books, and I am most grateful to her.
I should also like to give special thanks to Eric Rayner, who
supervised my research and not only gave me invaluable sup­
port but steered me towards a more objective view of Khan
when my transference obscured my vision.
I should also like to acknowledge the encouragement I was
given by Regent's College for enabling me to get down to writing
something which had been brewing in me for many years, and
special thanks to David Smith for making me radically re-think
my position.
In addition I should like to thank Dr Adam Limentani as
archivist of The International Psychoanalytical Association for
vii
Vii i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
granting me permission to quote in the biographical chapter
from those Work Books of Khan's that I hold.
There were many other people who helped me in this project,
and each of them knows what I owe them. I should like to name
a few: John Charlton, John Jones, Paul Kimber, Lionel Kreeger,
Paula Lavis, Pamela Mann, Kannan Navaratnem, Michael Sol­
way, and Michael Teper. I should also like to thank my close
colleagues at the British Association of Psychotherapists, who
followed my progress with the knowledgeable enthusiasm of
insiders—it was good to have them around.
It has been a great pleasure to have worked with Karnac
Books and I am truly grateful to both Harry Karnac for his
belief in this project and to Cesare Sacerdoti for his interest
and encouragement throughout, and also to my editor Klara
Majthenyi King for her creative expertise in editing this manu­
script.
On a more personal note, I should like to extend thanks to
Brett Kahr, who was an amazing source of psychoanalytic
knowledge; to Emma Klein, who helped me when my sentences
got too abstruse; to Nilda Maxwell, for her clarity and advice;
and to Mickey Yudkin, for her wise counsel. Also to my mother
and aunt, who commented on and encouraged me in whatever I
wrote.
In conclusion, I owe an immense debt to John, who good­
humouredly interrupted work on his own book to help and
advise me; to Flower and Zaki, who patiently sorted out my
problems with the word processor; and to Binkie, Weety, and
the memory of Chuby, all of whom have helped make home the
place it is.
CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Vii
FOREWORD Xi
Eric Rayner
PREFACE XVii
PART ONE
I have been a stranger in a strange land
1. Biography: Masud Khan, 1924-1989 3

Who was Masud Khan? / 3

Early years and growing up / 4

England / 12

France—an alternative home? / 23

Final years / 25

Personal appraisals of Khan / 30

Epilogue / 36

ix