Karl a Menninger—1893-1990

The death of Dr. Karl Menninger on July 18, 1990, four days short of his ninety-seventh birthday, brought to a close an era in American psychoanalysis and psychiatry. Psychoanalysis, the mental health professions in general, and all humankind lost one of their most beloved and esteemed, if also at times controversial, pioneers. He was often called the "Dean of American Psychiatry" and was a leader in the profession for seventy years. He helped bring the treatment of mental disorders out of the dark ages through his teaching, public lectures, well-known books, and countless articles which demonstrated in everyday language that the mentally ill could be helped.

"Dr. Karl," as he was often called, grew up in Topeka, Kansas, the city in which he died. He received his medical degree from Harvard University Medical School in 1917 and served an internship in surgery at Kansas City General Hospital. He was fascinated by patients with neurological illness, and he was encouraged by a friend to go to the Boston Psychopathic Hospital where his interest in neuropsychiatry blossomed under such stimulating and inspiring teachers as Elmer Ernest Southard and later the American psychoanalytic pioneer, Smith Ely Jelliffe. Returning to Topeka in 1919, he joined his father, Dr. C. F. Menninger, a homeopathic physician, in a family practice which increasingly focused on the mentally ill. A younger brother, Dr. William C. ("Dr. Will") Menninger, later joined his father and brother in the family practice. Impressed by the advantages of a group practice in what they had observed at the Mayo Clinic, the Menningers purchased an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Topeka, convinced local financiers to support their efforts, and established a psychiatric sanitarium