Pathologist of the Mind: Adolf Meyer and the Origins of American Psychiatry

330 Pages·2014·3.94 MB·English

by  S. D. Lamb

Pathologist of the Mind
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Pathologist of the Mind
Adolf Meyer and the Origins
of American Psychiatry
S. D. LAMB
Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2014 S. D. Lamb
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363
www .press .jhu .edu
All illustrations courtesy of and reproduced by permission of the Alan Mason
Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Lamb, S. D., 1971– author.
Pathologist of the mind : Adolf Meyer and the origins
of American psychiatry / S. D. Lamb.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 4214- 1484- 3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN- 10: 1- 4214- 1484- 8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 4214- 1485- 0
ISBN- 10: 1- 4214- 1485- 6
I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Meyer, Adolf, 1866– 1950. 2. Psychiatry— history—United States.
3. History, 19th Century— United States. 4. History, 20th Century— United
States. 5. Psychotherapy— history—United States. WM 11 AA1]
RC454.4
616.89—dc23 2013048850
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In memory of my parents,
Stan and Carol Lamb
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Contents
Ac know ledg ments ix
Introduction 1
1 Pathology as Method: Adolf Meyer’s Vision for
a Clinical Science of Psychiatry 26
2 Mind as Biology: Adolf Meyer’s Concept of Psychobiology 59
3 Unique Soil in Baltimore: The Phipps Psychiatric Clinic
at Johns Hopkins Hospital 99
4 The Baptismal Child of American Psychiatry:
The Meyerian Case History 130
5 A Wonderful Center for Mental Orthopedics:
Adolf Meyer’s Therapeutic Experiment 161
6 Subconscious Adaptation: Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
in Meyerian Psychiatry 205
Conclusion 246
Notes 257
Index 291
Illustrations follow pages 98 and 160
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Ac know ledg ments
Psychobiology, the concept upon which all of Adolf Meyer’s reforms, prac-
tices, and teaching were based, evolved from his extensive knowledge of
complex scientifi c and philosophical principles. In numerous scientifi c pub-
lications, he discussed these complexities from several demanding disci-
plinary perspectives, using weighty terminology, obscure literary references
(for which he assumed his readers needed no context), and a writing style
that was painfully long- winded, dense, convoluted, and abstruse. In order
to research and write this book, I worked to become fl uent in the Meyerian
syntax. I learned to identify and analyze the substantive content of Meyer’s
writing, and I searched for ways to reinterpret his meaning in intelligible
terms for both myself and my readers— all of which regularly tested my in-
tellectual and emotional limits. That I survived this decade- long ordeal owes
much to the advice, comments, and support that I received from a number of
people, whom I now have the plea sure of acknowledging and thanking.
Pathologist of the Mind was born and fostered in the Institute of the His-
tory of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. The institute’s faculty, under
the chairmanship of Randall Packard, created an intellectually diverse and
supportive environment that was ideal for scholarly development. My thesis
supervisor, Daniel Todes, cultivated a working relationship that integrated
pedagogy and collegiality seamlessly. He was (and remains) enthusiastic,
generous, challenging, responsive, and shrewd; I am fortunate and forever
grateful to reap the benefi ts of Dan’s exceptional commitment to academic
supervision and mentorship. Thank you to my dissertation committee
members— Nathaniel Comfort, Ronald Walters, Jay Schulkin, and Ruth
Leys— for their many keen insights and constructive comments. Special
thanks to Ruth Leys, whose singular expertise on Meyer’s ideology guided
my ongoing evaluation of the abundant source materials. At an early stage
in the research, Harry Marks suggested that I read Morton White’s 1949