The Columbia University Psychoanalytic and Psychosomatic Clinic for Training and Research was organized in 1944 to provide comprehensive training for qualified physicians, to encourage scientific research and development in psychoanalysis and related fields, and to provide service to the community by offering low-cost psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Eventually the Clinic would become known as the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
It was the founders' belief that the future of psychoanalysis lay in its becoming an integral part of university medical education, where the tradition of intellectual and academic freedom was beyond question. The same could not be said then of at least some analytic institutes, where authoritarian attitudes often quashed creativity and scientific exploration. The new institute's curriculum was planned to correct two particular defects in the psychoanalytic education of the day. At that time, psychiatric residencies had no nationally standardized core curriculum, and the founders determined to provide psychoanalysts a solid foundation in the neurosciences. In addition, clinical experience during residency was usually limited to inpatient work, with little exposure to psychiatric outpatients or to general medical patients with psychological disorders; psychiatric residencies provided no systematic psychodynamic teaching. The new three-year integrated analytic program was designed to provide didactic and clinical experience for all candidates, using the vast resources of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and Columbia University. Courses in the neurobiological sciences were required in the first year because they were not taught in psychiatric residency programs.
The founders of the Center were Nolan D.C. Lewis, then chair of the department of psychiatry at Columbia, George E. Daniels, Abram Kardiner, David M. Levy, and Sandor Rado. The first Bulletin from Columbia lists the four founding analysts—Lewis was not analytically trained—as teaching all the courses.
After completing his Harvard education, George Daniels studied in Zurich, where he met David Levy and Roy Grinker, Sr. On a second trip to Europe he was analyzed by Franz Alexander and supervised by Rado in Berlin. Daniels completed his training at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, eventually becoming secretary of the New York Society and, in 1939, vice-president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. During the thirties he worked in George Drapers constitution unit at the Vanderbilt Clinic, along with Flanders Dunbar, and had developed strong relationships with members of the department of internal medicine. Thus it was natural that once the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center was established, Daniels would head its psychosomatic division. Recently, a candidate at the Center unearthed a letter written by Daniels to Franz Alexander in 1932, in which he proposed a university-affiliated
analytic institute at Columbia. The idea was blocked at the time by George Kirby, then chair of the department of psychiatry. Daniels, a very modest man, had never emphasized the important role he clearly had played in the formation of the Center.
The same letter demonstrates the importance of Nolan D.C. Lewis, who as Kirby's successor lent his full support to the project. Lewis had studied under Adolf Meyer at Johns Hopkins and later was appointed director of clinical and laboratory psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital under William Alanson White. It was through this close association with White, third president of The American, that Lewis had become interested in psychoanalysis.
Abram Kardiner, a graduate of Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, had gone to Europe for a six-month analysis with Freud. Following completion of his analytic training at the New York Institute, he collaborated with anthropologists and sociologists at Columbia University. He taught them how psychodynamic knowledge could be applied to social systems and explored the role of culture in the shaping of personality. His collaborators were Ralph Linton, Ruth Benedict, and Cora Dubois, and his two most widely known books, The Individual and His Society and Psychological Frontiers of Society , were both published by Columbia University Press. His study of war neurosis during World War I is still quoted in the current literature on posttraumatic stress disorder.
David Levy, another founder, was elected president of The American in 1941. He had written extensively on such subjects as maternal deprivation, instinct satisfaction, and oppositional behavior. It was he who coined the terms “sibling rivalry” and “maternal overprotection”; both referred to concepts that had been relatively neglected in Freudian theory. Levy also pioneered the use of animal models in the experimental study of the effects of maternal deprivation.
As for Sandor Rado, who was appointed director of the fledgling institute, his contributions are detailed in the accompanying article by Henriette Klein. By the time Columbia began its first class in January 1945, Rado had brought in three additional faculty members, all recent graduates of the New York Institute: Nathan Ackerman, Robert Bak, and Viola Bernard. Ackerman, who had been trained in child psychiatry, studied the effects of family interactions on the developing personality and in the early 1950s founded the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy and Research. Bernard had been on the negotiating team that obtained permission from The American for a second accredited institute in New York. Later she founded the first program of community psychiatry in New York that offered a masters degree in public health. She remains the only living member of the original faculty.
An early problem faced by Columbia was an insufficient number of training analysts for a rapidly expanding enrollment. In 1947, to meet this need, fifteen training analysts from the New York Institute were added to the faculty. Included
in this group were Phyllis Greenacre, Edith Jacobson, John A.P. Millet, Richard Frank, and Leo Stone. Another problem was the cost of training. The generous donation of additional scholarship funds by Levy, Bernard, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Arnold Constable Foundation helped several candidates who otherwise could not have afforded training. All of the graduates of the first class were added to the faculty, among them Milton Saperstein, who in January 1948 became the first Columbia graduate, and Aaron Karush and Lionel Ovesey, who graduated the following June. Karush worked closely with Daniels on psychosomatic research in the early years, while Ovesey worked with Kardiner. In 1959, Kardiner, Karush, and Ovesey published a classic four-part critique of the libido theory in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases.
In 1949 George Goldman and Henriette Klein joined the faculty, contributing significantly for many years. In 1947 Ackerman brought in Bluma Swerdloff, the Center's first social worker, from the Jewish Board of Guardians, and a year later added her colleague, Nettie Terestman, to the staff. Both earned their doctorates while working on research projects at the Clinic. Together they provided backup support to the patient admissions service and to the reparative psychotherapy and psychosomatic psychotherapy services. Swerdloff is in charge of the Columbia oral history project and has recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with the founders, as well as other analysts prominent in the Center's early days.
In 1949 Robert Heath left the faculty for Tulane University to become the first Columbia graduate to chair a department of psychiatry. Other new
graduates joined the faculty and remained for years, including James Cattell (graduated, ); B. Ruth Easser ; Saul Karlin ; Margaret Lawrence , the first African-American analytic graduate; Stanley Lesser ; Margaret Stahl , and John J. Weber .
The four founders all had substantial interests in research, and candidates were expected to participate in research projects. Work was to be done under the guidance of one regular faculty member and a basic science sponsor to ensure that proper scientific methodology was followed. Toward this end, several neuroscientists from the staff of the New York State Psychiatric Institute were added to the
collaborating faculty. The early projects were divided into four groups, each headed by a founder. Rado was engaged in a schizophrenia project. He believed that this disorder, which he termed “schizotypal,” was a brain disease at a time when the majority of analysts explained it through a theory of regression. A number of early graduates worked on this project, which moved far afield from psychoanalysis.
A psychosomatic group headed by Daniels studied ulcerative colitis, hypertension, and the effects of menstrual phases on the psyche. Hilde Bruch, an active member of the Daniels team, is noted for her landmark work on eating disorders.
Kardiner's research, focusing on the effects of culture on personality, inspired several graduates of the 1950s. Herbert Hendin studied suicide in Scandinavia, Joseph Lubart conducted a cultural study of Canadian Eskimos, and Willard Gaylin studied nonclinical populations, including prisoners and war resisters.
Finally, Levy's research on children had a profound impact on a number of the Center's graduates. The most prominent perhaps was William Goldfarb, who later headed the Henry A. Ittleson Center for Child Research.
In 1954 Lawrence C. Kolb was chosen as the new chair of the department of psychiatry and director of the Psychiatric Institute. Kolb, a Washington-trained analyst who was also board certified in psychiatry and neurology, was an important friend and an active member of the Center.
Rado retired in 1955, as required under university rules. At that time a fourth year was added to the curriculum, and Rado's courses were divided up among Klein, Karush, Ovesey, Goldman, and Kardiner. At the end of Rado's decade, a spirit of enthusiasm and conviviality prevailed in the Center's daily life and inspired biannual parties for new candidates and new graduates, a tradition that continues to the present.
Kolb, believing that the Center would thrive best under the continued leadership of its founders, accepted the existing policy of allowing the outgoing director to name his successor. Rado nominated Kardiner, who served from 1955 to 1957, who in turn nominated Daniels for the period 1958–1961. Both were formally appointed by Kolb.
At the end of its first decade, Columbia still recognized a few training analysts from the New York Institute, but their numbers had diminished sharply as Columbia graduates were appointed as training and supervising analysts. In the mid-1950s, Arnold Cooper and Willard Gaylin were invited by Lionel Trilling, then chair of the English department, to teach a course on psychoanalysis to Columbia College undergraduates. Thus was initiated a long intellectual collaboration between Cooper and the Columbia English department and between Gaylin and the law school. This interdisciplinary work, continued throughout the history of the Center, has spread psychoanalytic concepts and attracted scholars for partial training.
In 1957 an affiliated outreach training program was initiated at five regional state hospitals. New faculty appointees were expected to begin in this program, both to extend psychoanalytic concepts and to provide teaching experience for young faculty members.
Early in Daniels's tenure, the basic science program was shifted to the first year of the residency, and elective courses were introduced for the first time. With the addition of a fourth year to the curriculum, it was possible to develop a
number of new courses. The special language developed by Rado had been dropped, though many of his concepts were still prominent.
Three more scholarships had been provided in 1957 to cover the tuition of candidates planning full-time academic careers, and a maximum fee of fifteen dollars per session was set for training analyses.
In 'The Columbia University Psychoanalytic Clinic“ (Journal of Medical Education, 1960), Daniels and Kolb emphasized the varied and productive careers of Columbia graduates. Many had become full-time analysts, some making significant contributions to the psychoanalytic literature and playing influential roles in professional organizations. Daniels and Kolb reported that a substantial majority also held important academic appointments in schools of medicine, teaching psychoanalytic concepts to psychiatric residents, medical students, psychologists, social workers, and undergraduates. About half were engaged in research, which involved both a variety of clinical specialties and basic studies in the genetics of psychiatric disorders.
Kolb was intent on training psychiatrists for academic careers, an aim totally compatible with the ideas of the founders. During his twenty-one years as chair, he had the final say in choosing residents, and he showed a good eye for spotting future department chairs and researchers. His philosophy extended into the Center, and many of his graduates went on to full-time academic careers, bringing psychodynamic psychiatry to other departments of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, to other medical schools, and to important positions of leadership and influence throughout the psychiatric profession. Many Columbia graduates became full-time analysts, going on to make significant contributions to the psychoanalytic literature and to play influential roles in psychoanalytic organizations and committees.
At the close of Daniels's tenure, it was recommended that the Center's director be appointed by a search committee, in accordance with University tradition, but this was not immediately implemented. Consequently, Daniels chose George Goldman as his successor, with Kolb's approval. Goldman, who served two five-year terms (1961–1971), had been Kardiner's assistant director and had headed the reparative psychotherapy service since 1951.
In 1961 Daniel Shapiro started a course on current psychoanalytic research and made a point of inviting prominent researchers from outside the Center. It was also during this period that John J. Weber began the psychoanalytic outcome study that was to become his lifework. At the same time, Aaron Karush, in addition to his work with Daniels on ulcerative colitis, formed a team with Arnold Cooper, Ruth Easser, and Bluma Swerdloff to develop the Ego Strength and Adaptive Balance Scale. One of the first psychodynamically oriented rating scales, it was used by the Weber, Elinson, and Moss group to assess outcome retrospectively with completed analytic cases. Cooper led the development of a new curriculum.
In 1964 Goldman named Karush assistant director and Weber secretary of the Center's faculty. They were to become the next two directors.
To mark the close of the Center's second decade, a scientific program and celebration was held. In his preface to the scientific papers, published in Developments in Psychoanalysis at Columbia University, edited by Goldman and Shapiro, Larry Kolb wrote: 'The doubts of the early psychoanalysts as to the wisdom of association with universities, expressed in the opinion that the full-time immersion of the psychoanalyst in his task of data gathering and theory building might be diffused and thereby defeated, may be examined in the light of two decades of accrued experience in the Columbia milieu. Such doubts, still heard from time to time, sometimes refer to a possible distraction of
the psychoanalyst because of pressures on him to collaborate with or to assist colleagues in medical or other disciplines through the application of psychoanalytic knowledge. He was seen to be deflected from the primary, task of collecting the stuff from which psychoanalysis made its beginnings. The experience in the Columbia milieu has proved otherwise. The vast majority of the faculty of the clinic are occupied and deeply concerned with just those tasks.“