Menninger, Karl 1893-1990

MENNINGER, KARL 1893-1990

Popularizer and publicizer of psychiatry

The Human Mind

In 1930 the American psychiatrist Karl Menninger published his best-seller, The Human Mind, a book that gave the psychopathology of everyday life and the workings of the mind a new meaning to many Americans. The psychiatrist in The Human Mind took the reader into his practice and let him see how the world looked when viewed through a psychiatrist's eyes. Menninger openly discussed the everyday problems of mental illness, and, in doing so, the reading population of the country developed new insights into both mental illness and the psychiatric specialty. Menninger's name appeared widely in newspapers and magazines as he also published articles and reached the public in the Nation, the New Republic, and the Ladies' Home Journal, In many minds Menninger's name and psychiatry became indivisible. Psychiatry had found a spokesman, and the Menninger family became the family psychiatrists of America.

A Medical Dynasty

Menninger was born in Topeka, Kansas, on 22 July 1893 to a medical dynasty. His father was Dr. Charles Frederick Menninger, a prominent physician from Topeka who found himself impressed with the Mayo Clinic's pioneer work in group practice in Minnesota. When he returned to Topeka after visiting the Mayo Clinic, arriving just in time for breakfast with his family, Charles Menninger bowed his head for the morning prayer. At last he raised his head, looked at each of his three sons in turn, and said, "I have been to the Mayos and I have seen a great thing. You boys are going to be doctors and we are going to have a clinic like that right here in Topeka." Two of his sons, Karl and William, became physicians, and both shaped the future of American psychiatry. Dr. Karl, as he was to become known, completed his medical training at Harvard Medical School in 1917. After his internship in Kansas City, he worked with Professor Ernest Southard in the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and taught in the Harvard Medical School. In 1920 he returned to Topeka to join his father in practice. The two conceived the idea of giving Topeka a group of physicians who could complement each other's work and agreed to dedicate their future to psychiatric practice. They were joined by two other physicians, and the first patients were admitted to the Menninger Clinic in 1925. The clinic was to become one of the greatest psychiatric clinics in the world.

Dr. Karl's Psychiatry

Dr. Karl carried the message of psychiatry to the public with a missionary's enthusiasm but tempered his writing with a scientist's caution. In the same year that The Human Mind was published, he completed his psychoanalytic training under Dr. Franz Alexander and received the first certificate of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He published several additional books with his 1938 book, Man Against Himself, also reaching both a popular and scientific audience. The Menningers leaned toward the Freudian concept of personality structure but rejected Freud's therapeutic recommendations. Menninger was not convinced that months on the couch could bring about cure or improvement and developed more effective short-term therapies. One of the clinic's most important innovations was the creation of a milieu therapy program. Both activities and attitudes were prescribed because of their specific therapeutic value for the individual patient. Every member of the hospital staff considered what attitude to display to the patient, whether it was "loving and tender care" or "firm but friendly encouragement." The shortage of psychiatrists in America made the Menninger Clinic a major teaching hospital and training center for doctors interested in psychiatry. The clinic got the approval of the AMA to train psychiatric nurses in 1931 and physicians in 1933. In 1938 they established the Topeka Institute of Psychoanalysis. Because of the work and dedication of the three Menninger physicians and the message of psychiatry from Dr. Karl, physicians flocked to Topeka to be trained. By mid century, the directors of some of America's greatest psychiatric clinics were the men who were in Topeka during the 1930s and 1940s.

Source:

Walker Winslow, The Menninger Story (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1956).