Arnold Z Schneider

A gifted clinician, teacher, supervisor, and scholar, Arnie touched countless lives with his insight, generosity, and unwavering kindness. He died peacefully on November 27, 2025, after a long illness.

Above all else, Arnie was a kind, gentle and humble man.

Born in Boston on April 22, 1946, to Ida and Samuel Schneider, Arnie grew up with a deep love of learning. As a boy, he immersed himself in Hebrew studies and history—interests that shaped his lifelong curiosity about people and the world. He graduated cum laude with distinction in psychology from Boston University, earning his Ph.D. there in 1973. He then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the renowned Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, an experience that profoundly influenced his professional life.

Arnie began his career, serving as both a psychologist and supervisor at Tidewater Psychiatric Hospital and later as Clinical Director of the Alcohol Treatment Program. During this time, he served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Old Dominion University and in the Department of Psychiatry at Eastern Virginia Medical School all in Norfolk Virginia.

He eventually returned to Topeka, where he worked as a Senior Psychologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital before rejoining the Menninger Foundation as a Staff Psychologist and Faculty Member. There he served on the teaching and supervising faculty at the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry and Mental Health Sciences.

When Arnie moved to Clearwater, he began an independent private practice that became a true home for his life’s work. He offered psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, couples therapy, supervision, and consultation—always with warmth and deep respect for the people he served. He also continued to teach and mentor through Nova Southeastern University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, helped found and served as president of the local APA Division 39 chapter, and served as a faculty member and supervisor at the Southeast Florida Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.

Arnie’s long involvement with the American Psychological Association (APA) was a source of pride and purpose. He served in many leadership roles, including President and Newsletter Editor of Section V of Division 39, Co-chair and Chair of Psychoanalytic Abstracts, Chair of the Ethics and Professional Issues Committee, and as a member of several editorial boards. He was a long standing member and served as president of Psychologists Interested in the Study of Psychoanalysis.

In 1985, Arnie helped remedy a longstanding barrier to psychoanalysis in America by serving as a main plaintiff in a successful class action lawsuit against medical interests who, over Sigmund Freud’s objections, were restricting training in psychoanalysis to physicians excluding psychologists and all other mental health professionals. For Arnie personally, working in the medical community at the time, the reverberations for his courageous steps were especially painful. Today, however, his courage and progressive thinking on the matter are universally recognized by psychoanalysts around the world, and he is revered as a progressive force in the growth of diverse thinking in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Arnie held Diplomates in both Clinical Psychology and Psychoanalysis, and was a certified psychoanalyst with the New York Freudian Society and a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

Throughout his career, Arnie shared his ideas generously, giving more than twenty-five presentations and publishing articles and book chapters. He helped found the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Institute and later the Tampa Bay Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies, where he guided and supported students as a faculty member, supervisor, and training coordinator.

Arnie’s dedication to his work was matched only by his devotion to the people he loved. He cherished his lifelong friendships with Gerry, Neal, Bryant, Len, and Antonio.

Arnie is survived by his wife and soulmate, Constance Gross; his cherished daughters, Andrea Connell (Mike) and Suzanne (Brendon Comer); his much loved grandchildren, Aidan Comer and Emily Connell; his dear sister, Elenor Peltz (Burton); niece and nephews and his beloved cats, Harry and Joe.

A private gathering will be held at a later date.

To honor Arnie’s life and the compassion he shared so freely, donations may be made to Congregation Beth Shalom in Clearwater.

“Love and work, work and love….that’s all there is.” Freud