Annual Report to the Friends

THE DEWItt WALLACE INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY Annual Report to the Friends July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016 Department of Psychiatry Weill Cornell Medical College 525 East 68th Street, Box 140 New York, New York 10065-4897 Phone: (212) 746-3727 Facsimile: (212) 746-8886 http://www.cornellpsychiatry.org/history c Table of Contents d Director’s Report 5 Librarian’s Report 7 DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry - A History 11 Inside the Collection Artistry of the Mentally Ill 19 Psychoanalysis: A Comic Drama 20 26 Report created by Megan J. Wolff for the Eric T. Carlson Memorial Grand Rounds DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, Department of Psychiatry. Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar 28 November 2016. Seminar Program Director’s Report 30 All rights reserved. Seminar Presentations 2015 - 2016 Issues in Mental Health Policy Lecture Series 32 34 The front cover and most internal images are taken from How Will NYC Address the Opioid Crisis? [Bill Gaines (w), Al Fedlstein (w)] Jack Kamen (a), Psychoanalysis #1(Mar/April 1955), Working Groups 43 Tiny Tot Comics [EC Comics]. Psychoanalysis and the Arts History of Psychoanalysis 44 Page 6 images: Chic Young (c), Joe Musial (w), 45 Blondie Promotional Comic Book, Seminar in Narrative Psychiatry NY State Dept. of Mental Hygiene, 1950. Chic Young, Blondie Promotional Calendar, In Memoriam 46 NY State Dept. of Mental Hygiene, 1950. Gerald N. Grob John M. Kerr 48 50 Page 9 image: Chic Young (c), Joe Musial (w), Barbara Fass Leavy Blondie Promotional Comic Book, NY State Dept. of Mental Hygiene, 1961. Research Faculty & Alumni Staff & Affiliated Faculty 52 53 Page 25 image: Alison Bechdel, Faculty News 59 Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, Alumni News 60 New York: Houghton Miflin Harcourt, 2012, 258. Benjamin Rush Scholars Benjamin Rush Alumni 61 62 Printed by CUMC Duplicating, New York, New York. Research Faculty Publications Friends of the Institute for the History of Psychiatry 66 Annual Report Committee 70 2 3 c Director’s Report d hank you for your support of the DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of TPsychiatry and the Oskar Diethelm Library. As you shall see, IHP has never been broader in its reach or more active. Programs that have taken some time and effort to establish have now bloomed. However, to maintain these many unique activities, we must count on your support. We are deeply grateful for all gifts, small and large. Amid our many activities and our growing community, we have also suffered three great losses, the deaths of Gerald Grob, Barbara Fass Leavy, and John Kerr. Each of these extraordinary people were crucial in creating IHP as an intellectual community. Gerry was always a crucial support and, with Norman Dain, Jacques Quen, and others, he embodied the History Section - as it was then called – and its commitment to understanding the role of mental institutions and mental health policy in America. It is fair to say that no one has surpassed Gerry’s extraordinary schol- arship, which remains critical to our understanding of the mentally ill in America, even as some now call for the return of mental asylums. Barbara joined the group not long after Gerry, and embodied the expansion of the group to include liter- ary studies and the use of psychological models to deepen our understanding of myths and narrative. In the 1980s, John Kerr found his way to the Section when it was one of the only scholarly forums in which devotees and sceptics could pres- ent work on psychoanalysis and Freud. With his knowledge and legendary gen- erosity, he added immensely to those efforts. I will deeply miss all three of these colleagues. However, their loss should only redouble our own commitment to the IHP and the next generation of scholars whom we must nurture. For the struggle to learn from the past never ends. Progress in human affairs is not so much linear as erratic, fragile, and in need of constant support and active engagement. I hope we can count on you to help us in that continued, crucial effort. George J. Makari, M.D. 4 5 c Oskar Diethelm Library d Librarian’s Report would like to start this year’s report by thanking Megan Wolff, Ph.D., the very I capable administrator of the Institute for the History of Psychiatry, for cover- ing the library during my maternity leave. This ensured that researchers still had access to the outstanding resources available here at the Oskar Diethelm Library without having to wait for my return. Transitioning back into the library’s daily hum has gone smoothly and I plan to continue with many projects that were put on hold while I was out. As in past years, the library provided access to a broad community of academic and independent researchers working in the history of psychiatry and related fields. Internal Weill Cornell Medical College faculty, staff, students, and Institute members, as well as outside researchers, were served through access to collections, reference requests, book circulation, and tours. Members of the Institute for the History of Psychiatry visited the library to obtain reading material for the Insti- tute’s working groups, to review new books, or to ask for assistance with research projects. This past year we added 97 new publications by purchase and approxi- mately 150 additional works through book donations. We were also fortunate to receive a few notable donations to our archival collection, which are described in more detail below. Donations and Acquisitions n response to recent interest by library users in the portrayal of psychiatry in Icomic books, Bert Hansen, Professor of the History of Science and Medicine and American History at Baruch College, donated three Blondie comic books and two Blondie calendars promoting mental health. Hansen has written on comic book portrayals of medicine in the past, and has noted that few academic librar- ies possess collections of comic media.1 The books and calendars he presented to us were produced by the New York State Department for Mental Hygiene in the 1950s and 60s, and feature the familiar characters of cartoonist Chic Young’s Blondie comic strip, which debuted in 1930 and is still published today. The comic books portray the Bumstead family, Dagwood, Blondie, Alexander, and Cook- ie, facing every day challenges and learning how to handle their emotions while also taking into account the feelings of others. The humorous episodes are titled, “Chain Reaction,” “Face the Music,” “Hurray for Love,” and “To Each his Own.” The family members learn about the importance of anger management, expressing appreciation, claiming responsibility, and making time for both individual and social activities. The calendars feature the phrase “Mental Health is for every day! At home, at work, at school, at play.” 6 7 Professor Hansen also donated seven lithograph prints from Harper’s Weekly, children and families, possibly Jelliffe’s own. The glass slides are very dusty but Puck, and the Illustrated London News about insanity and the trial of President the images remain intact and unharmed. A project to clean, preserve, catalog, and Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau. These lithographs have been added to the col- digitally scan these slides will begin soon. lection of related prints he donated in previous years. The library now holds an impressive collection of visual material related to the Guiteau trial, and we remain Volunteers grateful to Professor Hansen for his generous donations. nna Opryszko, a former library assistant at the Samuel J. Wood Library, vol- Esther Siegel and her brother Rabbi Daniel Siegel donated a letter written and Aunteered at the Oskar Diethelm Library for a few months this year. Anna signed by Sigmund Freud to the library. The letter, dated August 31, 1938, is ad- cataloged the group of lithographs related to the Guiteau trial and the Blondie dressed to the donors’ grandfather, Isaac Nachman Steinberg, who helped to found mental hygiene comic books mentioned above. She also compiled background in- the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization while living in London in formation on a number of photographs and prints on display in the library reading the late 1930s. The League had selected the Kimberley region of Western Austra- room. This was in addition to assisting with the more mundane tasks of refiling lia as a safe haven for European Jews fleeing the Holocaust. The letter appears to books, sorting through boxes, and checking journal titles against the catalog re- be a response from Freud to an inquiry from Dr. Steinberg, the exact nature of cords. which is unclear. Dr. Steinberg may have solicited support from Freud regarding the League, as Freud himself had fled to London with his immediate family fol- I encourage all our members and friends to visit the library, borrow books, request lowing the Nazi invasion of Austria in March of 1938. At the time the letter was articles, and use our rich material resources to further your research. written, Freud was aging and ailing. He died from cancer of the jaw a year later. The Siegels donated this noteworthy letter to the Oskar Diethelm Library in honor Marisa Shaari, MLIS of our Associate Director, Nathan Kravis, M.D. As in past years, the Oskar Diethelm Library was fortunate to receive a number of book donations from members and individuals interested in supporting and expanding our collection. Yvonne Voellinger, LCSW, and her husband Costa Con- stantine donated over 150 books related to the practice and history of psychiatry to the library in May of 2016. The gift includes numerous titles not already held by the library, which are welcome additions to the collection.

Load more