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Henry W. Brosin, M.D.: Leo H. Bartemeier, M.D., President, 1951–1952. 'A Biographical Sketch.' The American Journal of Psychiatry, 109, 1952, No. 1, pp. 8–10.
For the historian interested in the history of psycho-analysis and psychiatry in America, it will be of interest to study the life history of Leo H. Bartemeier, the former President of the American Psychoanalytical Association, of the International Psycho-analytical Association, and of the American Psychiatric Association (1944 to 1952). In his Presidential Address, given in May 1952 at the convention in Atlantic City, Bartemeier described the relation between psycho-analysis and psychiatry, starting with a discussion attributed to an anonymous speaker: 'Psychotherapy is an undefined technique applied to unspecified problems with unpredictable outcome. For this technique we recommend rigorous training'. The teaching of psychotherapy is the serious concern of many whose responsibility it is to head mental institutions and train psychiatric residents. Before the war the analytic and the psychiatric associations granted each other diplomatic recognition, but they also granted each other diplomatic extraterritoriality. This state of affairs marked a considerable advance over European psychiatry, which remained separated from psycho-analysis and kept psycho-analysis in a state of abnormal isolation. During the war the psychiatrist and the psycho-analyst met under fire, and they worked well together. The war over, the psycho-analysts returned to civilian life, but maintained with the psychiatrists the close relationship that had been established during the war years. Psycho-analysis was no longer isolated. Clinical psychiatry in America, particularly the private practice of psychiatry, has