Sidney J. Blatt Dies at 85; Developed ‘Double Helix’ Theory of Depression

May 19, 2014

(New York Times) – Sidney J. Blatt, a psychologist whose theory about the origins of depression guided treatment decisions for a generation of psychotherapists and helped deepen scientists’ appreciation of the diverse nature of chronic distress, died on May 11 in Hamden, Conn. He was 85. The cause was heart failure, his daughter Susan Schwab Goetsch said. Dr. Blatt was a widely published Freudian analyst at Yale in the 1970s when he began arguing in essays and scientific reports that personality developed along two intertwined pathways, one focused on identity and the other on relationships.