|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| biography |
classifications |
major works |
cross references |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
biography
| name: |
Ackerman, Nathan W(ard)
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1909–71)
|
| biography:
| Psychiatrist, therapist, and educator, born in Russia. Brought as a four-year-old to the USA (he became a citizen in 1920), he studied at Columbia University (1929 BA; 1933 MD). After serving a residency and on the staff of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, KS (1935–7), he returned to New York City to become chief psychiatrist of the Jewish Board of Guardians (1937–51). In addition to various other posts in the field of psychiatry, he was a professor of psychiatry at Columbia's medical school (1957–71). He received many honours and wrote numerous articles and books, but was best known for pioneering ‘family therapy’, an approach which treated individuals with mental illness in the context of their families. To this end he founded the Family Institute (1960), now known as the Ackerman Family Therapy Institute, in New York City. It is a major clinical centre as well as training ground for therapy that focuses on the psychodynamics of troubled families. |
|
|
|
|
