Helen Swick Perry: 1911-2001

Helen Swick Perry, editor, researcher, and author, died July 26 at age ninety. She was hired by Harry Stack Sullivan in 1946 to assist with the enthusiastic response to the second series of William Alanson White Memorial Lectures (presented by Brock Chisholm). She became managing editor later that year, a post she held until 1955, when work on the posthumous series of Sullivan books precluded an ongoing commitment to Psychiatry. Helen built the journal in to a self-sustaining enterprise, evident in a tripling of subscriptions and manuscript submissions.

She is also widely respected for her definitive biography of Sullivan, Psychiatrist of America (1982), and for her matchless work with the posthumous Sullivan book series.

She was a gifted author who used Sullivan's interpersonal approach to acquire new insights into social phenomena. Her 1954 Psychiatry paper was the first to apply the concept of selective inattention to international relations. (“Selective Inattention as an Explanatory Concept for U.S. Public Attitudes Toward the Bomb”). While doing research at Langley Porter Neuro-Psychiatric Institute she spent time as a participant-observer, analyzing the newly emerging “hippie” movement. The Human Be-In (1970) is still a highly regarded portrait of Haight-Ashbury. Her optimistic appraisal met something of the same star-crossed fate as the topic she addressed. The book release party coincided with the killings at Kent and Jackson State, a pivotal moment when peace and love were rapidly deteriorating into despair and hedonism.

During the Second World War, she was a writer for the War Production Board. She also worked for the Child Research branch of NIH in the 1950s and pursued research at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (Boston). She was a graduate of George Washington University and the recipient of a certificate in Applied Psychology from the Washington School of Psychiatry. She was an honorary member of the Harry Stack Sullivan Society of the William Alan