Figure 4 - uploaded by Jay Schulkin
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Curt Richter and Phyllis Greenacre conducting an experimental study of the grasp reflex in human infants. (Reproduced by courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.)
Source publication
Psychobiology, Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis: The Intersecting Careers of Adolf Meyer, Phyllis Greenacre, and Curt Richter - Volume 53 Issue 1 - Andrew Scull, Jay Schulkin
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Citations
... Whereas Meyer's ideas have largely faded from psychiatry, the legacy of the psychopathic hospitals has not. Indeed, Scull and Schulkin (2009) cite 'the evanescence of his influence, once he had passed from the scene', and argue that 'it was his institutional location, rather than the power of his ideas, which made him so central to what remained at his death a marginal and stigmatized specialty', referring to Johns Hopkins 'at a time when it was almost certainly the premier medical school in the United States' (p. 5). The institution of the psychopathic hospital, in contrast, is very much alive in terms of the degree to which contemporary psychiatric inpatient wards and outpatient departments reflect its structure and ideals. ...
A new psychiatric institution emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the psychopathic hospital. This institution represented a significant development in the history of psychiatry, as it marked the profession's reorientation from asylum-based to hospital-based care, and in this way presaged the deinstitutionalization movement that would begin half a century later. Psychopathic hospitals were also an important marker of psychiatry's efforts to redefine its professional boundaries and respond to its vociferous critics. This entailed both a rapprochement with general medicine in an effort to assert its scientific bona fides and a redefinition of its scope of practice to absorb non-certifiable 'borderland' cases in order both to emphasize non-coercive treatment and to enlarge the profession's boundaries.
... These are best exemplified by one of the antecedents of Engel's approach, e.g., Meyer's psychobiology. Meyer, cited by Engel, also conceived psychobiology as the integrative and multilevel study of the psychical life, ranging from the physicochemical and the neurological to the psychological and social (Ghaemi, 2010;Scull & Schulkin, 2009). This approach grounded Meyer's own plea for theoretical and practical eclecticism, which allowed him to endorse and provide ongoing support for extremely different and often incompatible perspectives on psychopathology. ...
... On the one hand, their actual history (i.e., the history of the actual development of mental health institutions and practices, of their darker and lighter figures, as well as of the users and survivors of such institutions and practices) is a shadowy one -to say the least--. Heroes and villains merge constantly; Enlighted chain-breakers soon turn into perverse engineers of contemporary forms of social control (Foucault, 1961(Foucault, /1965Szasz, 1961; charitable and open-minded leaders are revealed as unscrupulous abettors of monstruous intervention procedures (Ghaemi, 2010;Scull & Schulkin, 2009); cold-hearted, mindless behavior analysts are vindicated as deeply committed critical thinkers (Goddard, 2014). On the other hand, their conceptual history (i.e., the history of the different therapeutic models and the conceptual problems at the core of the debates among them) is no less confusing. ...
... In fact, according toScull & Schulkin (2009), Meyer not only endorsed Cotton's brutal practices, but also prevented his subordinate Greenacre from exposing the ineffectiveness of Cotton's methods. ...
Conceptual debates in the field of mental health have typically revolved around two core issues: the problem of mind and the problem of normativity. Against the reductivist and eliminativist tendencies that characterize most therapeutic models, in this dissertation we advance a pragmatist and non-descriptivist approach to mental health -a “philosophy of mental health without mirrors”. This approach rejects the idea that folk-psychological interpretation subserves a primarily descriptive and causal-explanatory function. Rather, it highlights its evaluative and regulative dimensions, while at the same time retaining their truth-aptness. In doing so, it offers a non-reductivist, yet compatibilist approach to the mind and normativity, which affords a better conceptual framework for mental health. We then explore its consequences for the debate around the doxastic status of delusional experiences and its implications for the intervention with people with delusions. Drawing from this non-descriptivist approach, we claim that doxasticism about delusions can and must be defended not on the grounds of its scientific value, but on the grounds of its ethical and political virtues. We conclude that non-cognitivist, functional-analytic approaches to the intervention with people with delusions offer a better model than their cognitivist counterparts, and we point out several ways in which our non-descriptivist approach could help to enhance their efficacy and clinical significance.
... Abb. 1Diese später publizierten Arbeiten wurden nach Angabe der Autoren in München begonnen flächliche Ordnung der Patientenakten durch Phyllis Greenacre bewies jedoch, dass die Sterblichkeit bei den großen Eingriffen größer war als die reklamierten Erfolge[12]. Die Veröffentlichung dieser kritischen Untersuchung wurde von Adolf Meyer, dem früheren Mentor Cottons, lange Zeit verhindert[21]. Die Affäre führte aber zu einer der ersten interdisziplinären, systematischen, kontrollierten Studien[15,16,22], die von George Kirby initiiert wurde, der 1906 ebenfalls einige Monate bei Kraepelin in München verbracht hatte [8]. Die Stimmung wissenschaftlichen Aufbruchs und der Wille zum Durchbruch von der Theorie in die medizinische Praxis und bis in die Gesellschaft hinein trugen zu katastrophalen Konsequenzen bei, die sich nicht auf Deutschland beschränkten. ...
Zusammenfassung
Die Betriebsausflüge von Emil Kraepelins Königlich Psychiatrischer Klinik wurden unter den Mitarbeitern als „katatone Wanderungen“ bezeichnet. Im Jahr 1906 nahm eine erstaunliche Zahl deutscher und internationaler Gäste daran teil, Nicolas Achucarro, Henry Cotton, Eduard Flatau, Smith Ely Jelliffe, Gaetano Perusini, Edward Scripture, Maurycy Urstein und andere. Viele von Kraepelins Kollegen waren inspiriert von seinen Ideen und getrieben von wissenschaftlichem Enthusiasmus, der neben fachlichen Fortschritten in der Nervenheilkunde zu ganz unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen führte, von der Zahn- und Bauchchirurgie zu Psychoanalyse und Evidenz-basierter Medizin; von Rassenhygiene und Nationalismus zur Präsidentschaft des kommunistischen Rumänien.
... A notable psychiatrist of this time was Adolf Meyer who practiced psychiatry with an emphasis on psychobiology and the influence of environmental, constitutional, and developmental factors on mental health. Meyer endeavored to create comprehensive histories and physicals on his patients which included social, mental, physical, and developmental history [8,9]. With World War II, there was an influx of psychiatrists trained in psychoanalysis immigrating to the US. ...
... Henderson was also introduced to the staff meeting, a novel clinical practice brought by Meyer from the psychiatric teaching hospitals of Europe (Meyer, 1948: 19). Used as an educational and training exercise, staff meetings entailed a single examining psychiatrist directing questions towards the patient, while a stenographer, sitting silently, recorded word-by-word the conversation between patient and practitioner (Scull, 2009). Henderson found the staff meeting a 'magnificent training system for junior members of staff, not only because of the clinical material but also because of the skilled manner in which it was discussed by the more senior members of staff' (Henderson, 1964: 160). ...
Charting a transatlantic movement of so-called ‘dynamic psychiatry’ during the early twentieth century, this paper reads against the grain of established historiographies. Comparing biographical and autobiographical sources with contemporary correspondence, a history is told which considers the evolution of psychiatric knowledge and clinical practices ‘from below’. Revealing a period and place when a ‘dynamic’ counter-culture challenged the established materialist views of Scottish psychiatry, the longevity of this challenge is considered in the concluding paragraphs.
... In creative individuals, certain tendencies toward a precocious mysticism or religious experiences have also been detected, sometimes with identifications with divine figures, and this can again be explained by means of the disavowal mechanism because of the mystic 51 Already widely mentioned above. En passant, following Harley and Weil (1990) and Scull and Schulkin (2009), we recall that Phyllis Greenacre ) was a notable American psychiatrist (with A. Meyer as advisor) and a psychoanalyst (with F. Wittels and E. Jacobson as supervisors), in friendship with E. Kris and H. Hartmann, who made important clinical and theoretical contributions to and insights into human development, to psychoanalytic training and therapy, and to creativity and fetishism. In particular, in the early 1950s Greenacre began to write on fetishism, observing that fetishists had an especially mutable bodily image. ...
In continuation of what has been said in the first part of this two-part paper, herein we present further considerations on symbolism, reconsider some related psychodynamic case reports with some possible variants about their interpretations, and will apply what is said to some further speculations on mathematical symbolism and thought.
... Fue combinando este trabajo docente con distintos cargos clínicos como patólogo del del Eastern Hospital for the Insane en Kankakee, Illinois (1893) seguido por su nombramiento en el Worcester State Hospital for the Insane en Worcester, Massachusetts (1895), su cargo como director del Pathological Institute of the New York State Hospitals en Nueva York (1902), y nalmente su puesto en 1908 como Director de la Clínica Psiquiátrica Henry Phipps, inaugurada en 1913. A todos estos cargos y puestos docentes, hay que sumarle su implicación en numerosas actividades organizativas y editoriales tanto en psiquiatría como en psicología; con un marcado papel institucionalizador. (Carnes, 2002;Grob, 1983, Scull y Schulkin, 2009Shorter, 1997). ...
Resumen El psiquiatra Americano de origen suizo Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) es considerado uno de los psiquiatras más innuyentes de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Entre su amplia correspondencia, se encuentran los hombres más eminentes en el terreno de la psiquiatría y de la psicología de su época. En este trabajo examinaremos la correspondencia entre A. Meyer y uno de los psiquiatras y psicólogos españoles más eminentes, Emilio Mira (1896-1964) con el de hacernos idea de la signiicación del español para su homólogo americano. Para obtener una imagen completa, estudiaremos las cartas que se intercambiaron, incluyendo la correspondencia corporativa en la que ambos estuvieron implicados. Además consideraremos las anotaciones relevantes de los diarios de Meyer y sus notas de trabajo. Concluiremos que Meyer tenía a Mira en alta estima profesional y conocía directamente sus trabajos, en parte como consecuencia de que ambos compartían muchos de sus supuestos teóricos, epistemológicos y aplicados. Abstract Swiss-born American Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) is considered one of the most innuential psychiatrists of the half of the 20th century. Among his extensive correspondence the names of the most eminent men in the psychiatric and psychological of his time appear. paper examines the correspondence between A. Meyer and one of the most important Spaniard psychologist and psychiatrist E. Mira (1896-1964), as a way to have a insight
... In some authors' opinion, Meyer was the most prominent and influential American psychiatrist in the first half of the 20th century (Grob, 1983;Leys 1991;Scull, 2005;Scull & Schulkin, 2009;Shorter, 1997). Born in Switzerland, he graduated from medical school at the University of Zurich in 1892 and that same year, emigrated to the United States. ...
... In some authors' opinion, Meyer was the most prominent and influential American psychiatrist in the first half of the 20th century (Grob, 1983;Leys 1991;Scull, 2005;Scull & Schulkin, 2009;Shorter, 1997). Born in Switzerland, he graduated from medical school at the University of Zurich in 1892 and that same year, emigrated to the United States. ...
In the early twentieth century, the Swiss-born psychiatrist Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) played a major
role in defining and institutionalizing the field of mental hygiene. In addition, he was actively involved
in establishing American Psychiatry and Psychology as allied, but professionally and academically
independent disciplines. From his highly visible position as professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins
University and director of the prestigious Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, Meyer assumed a preeminent
place in the American Psychological scene. From that position, he also exerted a profound influence
internationally. This paper examines Meyer’s correspondence with certain Spanish authors in order to
glean some insight into the significance of the Spaniards to their American counterparts. It is concluded
that Meyer had a deep knowledge of the work of Ramon y Cajal, Nicolas Achúcarro, Gonzalo Rodríguez
Lafora, and Emilio Mira. Furthermore, Meyer knew first-hand the political circumstances that forced
most of them into exile, and worked with some American initiatives to support Spanish doctors and
scientists during and after the Spanish Civil War.
Adolf Meyer (1866–1950), a Swiss-born American psychiatrist, was a prominent figure in the development of Anglo-American psychiatry. He rose to prominence as the president of the American Psychiatric Association. His psychobiological approach emphasized a holistic understanding of mental illness, integrating social, psychological, and biological factors. This laid the foundation for a new approach to psychiatry focusing on individualized care and the importance of social adaptation as a biological function. Meyer’s work challenged traditional biomedical views by advocating for a comprehensive model that considered the mind and body as interconnected entities. He was directly responsible for transforming “insane asylums” into “mental hospitals.”
