T D W W I HE E ITT ALLACE NSTITUTE FOR THE H P ISTORY OF SYCHIATRY A R F NNUAL EPORT TO THE RIENDS J 1, 2010 - J 30, 2011 ULY UNE Oskar Diethelm Library Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry Eric T. Carlson Memorial Grand Rounds 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 Designed by Siovahn A. Walker for the DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, Department of Psychiatry. October 2008. All rights reserved. The cover image, Guérison D’une Femme Possédée (Fragment d’un tableau de Giunta Pisano, 1230) is taken from: Jean-Martin Charcot’s Les Démoniaques dans L’Art, as are the other images used throughout this Annual Report. Printed by CUMC Duplicating, New York, New York. 2 T C ABLE OF ONTENTS Director’s Report 5 Librarian’s Report 8 DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry A History 10 In Memorium: Arnold Cooper 15 Inside the Collection: Charcot Outside the Salpetriere 17 Book Review: Mirrors of Memory 21 Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar: Seminar Program Director’s Report 28 Seminar Presentations, 2009-2010 30 Working Groups Psychoanalysis and the Arts 33 History of Psychoanalysis 34 Research Faculty & Alumni Staff & Affiliated Faculty 36 Faculty News 37 Alumni News 45 Benjamin Rush Scholars Program 49 Research Faculty Publications 51 Friends of the Institute for the History of Psychiatry 56 Annual Report Committee 60 3 4 D ’ R IRECTOR S EPORT History happens before our eyes, as lived experience spins into the past and leaves residues that grow increasingly faint. It all happens without pause and without notice, until a jarring loss forces us to recognize how far time’s undertow has pulled us from where we were. All of a sudden, it may be clear that a mentalité, a way of life, or even a culture has vanished. In 2011, Arnold Cooper died and his passing was for me one such moment. My gratitude goes out to Robert Michels for contributing a remembrance in these pages. Arnie was a good friend to many of us in the Institute. He was a very active member of the Richardson seminars and the Working Groups on Psychology and the Arts and on the History of Psychoanalysis. Moreover, for me, he embodied a kind of moral courage and humanist faith that now seems from another time. I met him when I was 23, a new transfer to Cornell’s medical school, struggling to find a way to marry my desires to be a doctor and a writer. A graduate student at Columbia University mentioned to me that a Dr. Cooper co-taught a renowned class on psychoanalysis and literature; the other teacher once had been the luminous Lionel Trilling. Crazy me. I sought out this Cooper, and asked if the class was open to Cornell medical students. The question, of course, was absurd. Why would a Cornell medical student be allowed to take a Columbia graduate seminar? I remember the puzzled but pleased look on his face, and the searching interview that followed this bizarre request, no doubt the first and last time the question had been put to him. Surprisingly, generously, he agreed. Though the class met in the middle of the day far across town, and despite the minor inconvenience of my third year surgery rotation (!), we could ride up together if I could get coverage. The whole thing was mischievous, a bit like getting 5 the teacher to play hooky with you. The course itself was a blur, since I was mixing Kafka and Camus with guts, sutures and a lot of overnight call. However, the taxi rides back and forth were filled with passionate discussions of books, painting, his nights hanging out with Frank O’Hara and the gang, and of course psychoanalysis. I began to see my future. The map was there and he had helped me draw it. I wrote a class paper that he encouraged me to publish; it became my first psychoanalytic publication. When the class ended, I gave him a gift, James Agee’s A Death in the Family, a book about fathers and sons. By then, the Partisan Review, Abstract Expressionist, and Freudian intelligentsia were already near passé. However, the moral challenges of liberal culture, as thinkers like Trilling anatomized it, remained. I think it was no coincidence that one of Arnie’s proudest moments exemplified his determined belief in intellectual freedom. As he told it, he happened to be president of the American Psychoanalytic Association, when a chorus of the orthodox called for the expulsion of Heinz Kohut. It was a watershed moment: would there be another schism added to psychoanalysis’ sorry list? If I remember correctly, Arnie was lukewarm about Kohut’s theories, but firm in his conviction that he would not let a purge occur. Heinz Kohut stayed, setting the tone for what would come. It was a great achievement, but not surprising. This man’s ethical backbone created a kind of fearlessness within him. In conversation, he would impatiently cut away from social niceties and push for deeper exchanges, truer motives, more meaningful dialogue. He believed there was such a thing as human depth, inner truth, and authenticity. Quaint perhaps, filled with problems for sure, but what have we traded those virtues for today? Arnold Cooper’s archives will be deposited 6 at the Oskar Diethelm Library, where scholars will begin to sort through the lessons of his life and his era. Throughout this Annual Report, you will find a busy hive of activity, from lectures of visiting scholars, working groups, and the constant expansion of the Oskar Diethelm Library, I am delighted to welcome our new Special Collections Librarian, Marisa Shaari, who has already proven herself to be an extraordinary steward of the collection. Congratulations go out to Megan Wolff, now Dr. Megan Wolff, who completed her Ph.D. at Columbia in the History of Public Health. She has been unfailing judicious, kind and helpful. And a special thanks to Nathan Kravis, the faculty members, and the Friends. Your commitment makes this enterprise flourish. George J. Makari, M.D. 7 O D L SKAR IETHELM IBRARY LIBRARIAN’S REPORT The past year has been one of transition for the Oskar Diethelm Library. Diane Richardson retired from the position of Special Collections Librarian after over a decade of dedicated service. I took over the helm of the library in July of this year and anticipate an exciting and challenging period ahead. I came to the Oskar Diethelm Library from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History at the New-York Historical Society, where I served as the Archivist/Curator for a number of years. My academic background includes a master’s degree in Museum Studies from Seton Hall University, and a master’s degree in Information and Library Science earned at Pratt Institute, New York, in 2009. The duration of my career has been dedicated to the care and preservation of special collections and I look forward to continuing this gratifying work at the Oskar Diethelm Library. In addition to regular use of the collection by Institute members, residents, and medical students, the library continues to provide access to a broad community of academic and independent researchers working in the history of psychiatry and related areas. A number of scholars have used our library facilities for research during 2011. The papers of D. W. Winnicott, David M. Levy, and Thomas Salmon continue to be among our most requested collections. In today’s digital world, online access is the key to connecting researchers with information. Thanks to the efforts of Diane Richardson, we are fortunate to have almost the entire book collection (over 25,000 volumes) cataloged and available online. The library’s archival collections have grown in 8 prominence in recent years and are now used quite frequently by researchers. While we do have a list of the archival collections on our website, we do not have descriptions or guides available online. With that in mind, future projects will focus on increasing access and promoting use of the archival collections by making finding aids available online and as time goes on, processing collections that are currently unavailable to researchers. Other long term goals include completing the cataloging of the book collection, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the collection, digitizing photographs and images, and adding journal entries to the online catalog. As the academic year progresses, I look forward to meeting the members of the Institute. Please don’t hesitate to drop by the library at any time to use the collections, request assistance with research, offer guidance and suggestions, or simply to say hello. Marisa Shaari, M.L.I.S. 9