A. A. Brill: 1874–1948

With the death of Dr. Brill on March 2, 1948, we mourn the loss of a resolute pioneer of psycho-analysis, a gifted practitioner and consultant in psychiatry, and an exceptionally loyal colleague.

A. A. Brill was born on October 12, 1874, at Kanczuga, in Galicia, then a part of Austria. When he was fourteen he persuaded his parents to allow him to venture his lot in the distant land of America. He travelled alone, was defrauded of his few dollars on the ship, and landed in New York without a word of English or a cent of money. Quite undaunted he took the first job he could get, managed to survive without a friend to help him, and later on earned a living by teaching various languages, a smattering of which he picked up with a special flair. The qualities he then displayed of stout-heartedness and independence he retained through his life and by his example he often infused them into those he had the opportunity of helping when in difficult circumstances. A born optimist, he early on determined on the least accessible ambition, that of pursuing the costly and lengthy education necessary to obtain a medical qualification. He had set himself a hard task, and more than once his inability to pay the examination fees compelled him to turn aside to other work until he could save the needed sum. At last he entered New York University, where he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1901, and two years later graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University with the Doctorate of Medicine.

After qualification he became an assistant physician at one of the New York State (Mental) Hospitals, at Central Islip, Long Island, when he came under the influence of Adolf Meyer and, later, August Hoch, the two most distinguished psychiatrists in America. Four years later he decided to go to Europe for further study, and Frederick Peterson, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, who had studied under Jung for a short while, gave