Dr. Lester B. Luborsky, 89, former Penn professor

Dr. Lester B. Luborsky, 89, an emeritus psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, died of Alzheimer's disease Oct. 22 at his Philadelphia home.

Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from Central High School in 1938 and earned his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1942.

After earning his doctorate in psychology at Duke University in 1945, he was an instructor at the University of Illinois for two years before working as a senior psychologist from 1947 to 1959 at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kan.

In 1959, he became an assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and became a full professor of psychology in psychiatry in 1968.

From 1974 to 1976, his resume states, he was the principal investigator of "behavioral control methods for the treatment of essential hypertension," a $600,000 project funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health.

From 1990 to 1998, he was the principal investigator for a $3 million project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a study of psychosocial treatments for cocaine abuse.

His work was not limited to the Penn campus.

In 1973 and 1974, he was president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.

In 1973, he was a visiting professor at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, and in 1981 and 1982 at Universität Ulm in West Germany.

From 1979 to 1982, he was a director for the American Mental Health Foundation. In 2000, he was on the international advisory board of the World Congress of Psychotherapy.

In terms of awards, 1999 was a special year.

The American Psychological Foundation gave him its Gold Medal Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Applications of Psychology.

And the American Psychoanalytic Association gave him its Award for Distinguished Psychoanalytic Theory and Research.

His books include Principles of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Manual for Supportive-Expressive Treatment (1984) and Who Will Benefit from Psychotherapy? Predicting Therapeutic Outcomes (1988).

And with Paul Crits-Christoph, he wrote Understanding Transference: The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method (1990).

Dr. Luborsky is survived by a son, Peter; daughters Ellen and Lise; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Ruth, died in 2002.

A funeral took place Sunday.