On May 14, Dr. Margaret S. Mahler was the recipient of the “Medal of Distinction” of Barnard College, the well known women's institution, which is affiliated with Columbia University. Jacquelyn Anderson Mattfeld, Barnard's president, addressed Dr. Mahler as follows:
“Margaret Schoenberger Mahler, internationally renowned clinician, revered teacher, dedicated researcher, and psychoanalytic theorist of the first rank in the field of normal and abnormal child development: You have given us our deepest and most fundamental insights into the emergence and consolidation of the psychological self.
“Your discoveries contribute to the treatment and prevention of mental illness, and extend psychoanalytic theory to permit a comprehensive understanding of human development.
“Brilliant daughter of a distinguished Hungarian physician, you were one of the first women of your town to make her way into a profession, beginning your medical practice as a pediatrician and then as a child analyst in Vienna, where you studied with the early pioneers in psychoanalysis. Beginning with your classic studies in Tic Syndromes at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons in the 1940's, shortly after you arrived in this country; continuing with your pathbreaking clinical and theoretical work on autistic and symbiotic child psychosis; and culminating in your fundamentally important theory of separation-individuation describing the stages in the normal ‘psychological birth of the human infant,‘ you have given us a framework for comprehending how our individuality, and in a larger sense, our humanity, emerge out of the first human relationship between mother and child.
“During the past two decades, you have received the highest honors from your colleagues in the psychoanalytic community. You are the holder of honorary degrees; your books have been translated into several languages; and mother-infant nurseries modelled after your Masters Children's Center are being established here and in other countries to further the work of primary prevention.
“Few scientists possess your combination of creative attributes: A broad range of interests and knowledge pursued with penetrating curiosity, clarity, and integrative strength; a disciplined empathy and uncanny psychological intuition; the ability to explore psychological events always within their appropriate biological context. You possess the gift of inspiring fellow researchers to surpass themselves to achieve larger objectives: you have sustained the vision to discern significant, universally applicable meaning in all the rich profusion of human phenomena.
“In recognition of your personal and professional achievements and gifts to society, Barnard College is honored to present you with our highest honor, The Medal of Distinction.”
Also, on May 17, she was feted at the eleventh Margaret S. Mahler Symposium on Child Development given annually by the Medical College of Pennsylvania, the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute and Society, this one at the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the establishment of their child analysis program.