Herbert S. Gaskill, M.D. (1909–1993)

Herb Gaskill, a significant figure in the development of psychoanalysis in America, was born in Philadelphia into the strong Quaker tradition of that area, the son of an editor and publisher of medical textbooks.

Herb graduated from Haverford College in 1932, where he became acquainted with Freud and other writers on psychology and anthropology, and decided then to become a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He spent an additional college year taking pre-medical courses for admission to the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In August 1937 he married Evelyn Remington, who had received her degree in Social Work from the Pennsylvania School of Social Work. Herb did his residency and internship at the Pennsylvania Hospital and was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

During World War II, Herb became a Major in the US Army, spending two years in India as Chief of Neuropsychiatry. Upon his return from India, he was assigned to the Office of The Surgeon General of the Army, where William C. Menninger was Chief of Neuropsychiatry. His personal relationship with Will Menninger was a profound influence on the young Dr Gaskill, and he worked with Menninger to facilitate the introduction of psychodynamic thinking into military psychiatry. On returning to his post at the university, Herb introduced psychoanalytic thought into medical psychiatric teaching.

Herb began his psychoanalytic training at the Institute of the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Society, but within a few months he was invited to assume the chairmanship of the department of psychiatry at the University of Indiana. It was a big move; Herb and Evelyn now had two sons and two daughters, and the move to Indianapolis further involved transferring to the Psychoanalytic Institute of Chicago and commuting to Chicago, first for his personal analysis, and subsequently for classwork and supervision as well. In 1952 Herb was invited to chair the Department of Psy