Leon Eisenberg (August 8, 1922 – September 15, 2009) was an American child
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
,
social psychiatrist and medical educator who "transformed child psychiatry by advocating research into developmental problems".
He is credited with a number of "firsts" in medicine and psychiatry – in
child psychiatry
Child and adolescent psychiatry (or pediatric psychiatry) is a branch of psychiatry that focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and their families. It investigates the biopsychosocial fact ...
,
autism
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
, and the
controversies around autism,
randomized clinical trials
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical t ...
(RCTs),
social medicine
The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through
# understanding how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and
# fostering conditions in which this understanding can lead to a health ...
, global health, affirmative action, and
evidence-based psychiatry.
He served as Chair of the
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...
Department of
Child and adolescent psychiatry
Child and adolescent psychiatry (or pediatric psychiatry) is a branch of psychiatry that focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and their families. It investigates the biopsychosocial fac ...
and
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
until1988, when he retired. After retirement, he continued as The Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine, Psychiatry Emeritus, and in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of the Harvard Medical School in the
Longwood Medical Area
The Longwood Medical and Academic Area (also known as Longwood Medical Area, LMA, or simply Longwood) is a medical campus in Boston, Massachusetts. Flanking Longwood Avenue, LMA is adjacent to the Fenway–Kenmore, Audubon Circle, and Mission H ...
of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, until a few months before his death in 2009. He received both his BA and MD degrees from the
Perelman School of Medicine
The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...
at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. He taught previously at both the University of Pennsylvania and
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
. He was chief of psychiatry at both Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
and the
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...
in Boston during formative periods in psychiatry for each institution.
Medical accomplishments
Leon Eisenberg, completed the first outcome study of autistic children in adolescence, and recognized patterns of language use as the best predictor of prognosis. Of the two first studies of the outcome of infantile autism, he reported the American study in the ''
American Journal of Psychiatry
''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...
'' in 1956, and the UK study was reported in ''JCPP'' shortly afterward by Victor Lotter and Sir
Michael Rutter
Sir Michael Llewellyn Rutter CBE FRS FRCP FRCPsych FMedSci (15 August 1933 – 23 October 2021) was the first person to be appointed professor of child psychiatry in the United Kingdom. He has been described as the "father of child psychol ...
. Eisenberg also studied and identified the use of rapid return to school as the key treatment in the management of the
separation anxiety
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual experiences excessive anxiety regarding separation from home and/or from people to whom the individual has a strong emotional attachment (e.g., a parent, caregiver ...
in an underlying school
phobia
A phobia is an anxiety disorder defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected go to great lengths to avo ...
.
He was principal investigator (PI) on the first grant from the Psychopharmacology Branch of NIMH for RCTs in child psychopharmacology. From a concern for
evidence-based
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. While seemingly obviously desirable, the proposal has been controversial, with some arguing that results may not specialize to indivi ...
care, well before the phrase was coined, he introduced
randomized controlled trial
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical te ...
s (RCTs) in
psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology (from Greek grc, ψῡχή, psȳkhē, breath, life, soul, label=none; grc, φάρμακον, pharmakon, drug, label=none; and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none) is the scientific study of the effects drugs have on m ...
and showed that "tranquilizing" drugs were inferior to placebo in the treatment of
anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal function are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physi ...
, whereas stimulant drugs were effective in controlling
hyperactivity
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...
.
Eisenberg completed the first RCTs of psychiatric consultation to social agencies and of the utility of brief psychotherapy in anxiety disorders. He published a forceful critique of
Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded ...
's instinct theory and established the usefulness of distinguishing "
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
" from "
illness
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that ar ...
". He has highlighted the environmental context as a determinant of the
phenotype
In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...
emerging from a given
genotype
The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the alleles or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a ...
, and from the late 1990s through 2006, he had been involved with developing conferences and resources for medical educators in various specialties that would help them incorporate, into courses with their current and future students, the tidal wave of new information in
genomics
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...
yet to puzzle future clinicians. This interest may have been encouraged by his stepson, Alan Guttmacher, then acting head of the
National Human Genome Research Institute
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland.
NHGRI began as the Office of Human Genome Research in The Office of the Director in 1988. This Office transi ...
. For many decades, Leon Eisenberg had criticized
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
from a number of platforms.
The scientific contributions of Eisenberg include:
* the first longitudinal follow-up of
Leo Kanner
Leo Kanner (; born Chaskel Leib Kanner; June 13, 1894 – April 3, 1981) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, physician, and social activist best known for his work related to autism spectrum disorder. Before working at the Henry Phipps Psychi ...
's original cases of autism
* a study that identified the roots of social phobia in parental anxiety
* the first clinical trial of the effectiveness of psychiatric consultation in a social agency
* the first
randomized controlled trial
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical te ...
in childhood
psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology (from Greek grc, ψῡχή, psȳkhē, breath, life, soul, label=none; grc, φάρμακον, pharmakon, drug, label=none; and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none) is the scientific study of the effects drugs have on m ...
* the first randomized controlled trial of stimulant drugs in adolescents
* the first randomized clinical trial of brief psychotherapy
* a forceful critique of Lorenz's theory of instincts and
imprinting
* an early statement of the distinction between "disease" (what doctors deal with) and "illness" (what patients suffer)
* a widely cited critique of the oscillation of psychiatry between brain-centered and mind-centered approaches arguing for the integration of the two
* a synthesis of the evidence on the importance of training primary care physicians to recognize and treat depression
* papers that highlight the molding of the brain structure by social experience
* publications putting inheritance in an environmental context as a determinant of risk and resilience.
* Called "the father of prevention science in psychiatry"
Leon Eisenberg was proudest of the Diversity Lifetime Achievement Award he received in 2001 for his role in inaugurating affirmative action at HMS in 1968 and sustaining it as chairman of the Admissions Committee from 1969 to 1974. He regards that as his most important contribution to
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
.
He and his wife,
Carola B. Eisenberg
Carola Blitzman Eisenberg (September 15, 1917 – March 11, 2021) was an Argentine-American psychiatrist who became the first woman to hold the position of Dean of Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1978 to 1990, she w ...
, former dean of students, first at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
, then at
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
, had been active with Physicians for Human Rights, which as an organization that received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations whose stated objective is a world free of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their right ...
.
In mid-2009 (June 22, 2009), a Leon Eisenberg Chair in Child Psychiatry was named at Children's Hospital Boston. The first chairholder of the Leon Eisenberg Professorship in Child Psychiatry is David R. DeMaso, MD, HMS Professor of Psychiatry and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Children's Hospital Boston.
His autographical memoir was published posthumously by
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
The ''Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica'' is a Scandinavian peer-reviewed medical journal containing original research, systematic reviews etc. relating to clinical and experimental psychiatry. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journa ...
.
Humor
Among his friends and professional colleagues, Leon Eisenberg was known for his humor and friendly wit which he shared in lectures, publications, and even as Recording Secretary for th
American Academy of Arts and Sciences(sometimes in the form of haiku).
Attendees at the Annual Leon Eisenberg Award at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, end the evening – after the Awardee's lecture – with informal sharing of "Leon's jokes to the best of our memories". While it is often assumed that these quips and stories were Eisenberg originals, research shows that many if not most – or even all – "had a prior history".
Former president of Case Institute of Technology (then Case-Western Reserve),
Edward M. Hundert, while he was a medical student (class of 1984) at
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
, played the part of Leon Eisenberg in the HMS Class Folies, in which (as his character) he sang the supposedly satirical but actually most complimentary tune, "I feel witty!"
Death
Leon Eisenberg died of
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
at his home in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
on September 15, 2009.
Timeline of Leon Eisenberg's life and achievements
![LeonEisenberg recent-2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/LeonEisenberg_recent-2007.jpg)
* 1922 – Born in Philadelphia, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants
* 1934-1939 Attended
Olney High School
Olney Charter High School, formerly Aspira Charter School at Olney, and Olney High School, is a public high school located in the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Previously directly controlled by the School District of Philade ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, Pennsylvania.
* 1938-1939 – Editor of Olney High School newspaper
* 1939 – Graduation from Olney High School, Philadelphia PA; won a Mayor's Scholarship to College (based on the College Entrance Board Examinations).
* 1942 – Leo Kanner identified 11 boys with unusual constellation of traits—extreme social isolation, an inability to look people in the eye, a preoccupation with objects and ritual, and hand-flicking and other repetitive movements.
* 1944 – AB – College of University of Pennsylvania (nearly straight As)
* 1944 – Applied to medical schools with nearly straight A's in college; turned down by all those schools; University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine accepts him after intervention by Pennsylvania legislator on behalf of outstanding student Leon Eisenberg.
* 1946 – Graduated valedictorian of his medical school class but denied (along with the seven other Jews who applied) an internship at the University of Pennsylvania hospital; went to
Mt. Sinai Hospital in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
instead
* 1946 – MD – University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
* 1946 1947 – Rotating Intern, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City (discovered psychiatry)
* 1947-1948 – Instructor in physiology, University of Pennsylvania
* 1948-1950 – Instructor in basic science program,
Walter Reed Hospital
* 1948-1950 – Captain, Medical Corps,
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
* 1950 1952 – Psychiatric resident
Sheppard Pratt Hospital Towson, MD.
* 1952 1954 – Fellow in Child Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD – works with the great psychiatrist,
Leo Kanner
Leo Kanner (; born Chaskel Leib Kanner; June 13, 1894 – April 3, 1981) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, physician, and social activist best known for his work related to autism spectrum disorder. Before working at the Henry Phipps Psychi ...
. Eisenberg would join him in his exploration of the newly identified psychiatric disorder, early infantile autism, paying special attention to the social, and especially, the family setting of the children in which it appeared. Becomes Kanner's protégé and spread his mentor's
Refrigerator mother theory
The Refrigerator mother theory, also known as Bettelheim's theory of autism, is a controversial psychological theory that the cause of autism is a lack of maternal (figurative) warmth. Evidence against the refrigerator mother theory began in t ...
until the end of the fifties. For example, in 1955 he told Johns Hopkins Medical Association that the case of a mother who let one of her baby twins die because he was crying off scientific schedule "can serve as a paradigm of the emotional refrigeration that has been the common lot of the autistic child." Later he seemed to regret this period and said his doubts about psychoanalysis were encouraged by Leo Kanner.
* 1953-1955 – Instructor in psychiatry,
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
* 1955 (Dec) – Certified in psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
* 1958-1961 – Associate professor of psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University (Became Chief of Child Psychiatry 2 years before actual promotion to full professor)
* 1959 – Became chief of child psychiatry at Johns Hopkins upon the retirement of Leo Kanner (became full professor 2 years later, in 1961)
* 1959-1967 – Chief of child Psychiatry, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
* 1960 (May) – Certified in Child psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
* 1961-1967 – Professor of child psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University
* 1962 – Eisenberg launched the first randomized clinical trial of a psychiatric medicine (childhood clinical psychopharmacology)
* 1967 – AM (Hon) Harvard University
* 1967-1974
ChiefPsychiatric Services Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...
* 1967 – only months after arriving to chair the psychiatry department at Massachusetts General Hospital, Eisenberg was asked to join a small committee, including HMS Professors Jon Beckwith, Ed Kravitz, and David Potter, that was pushing to increase the number of African-American students at the medical school.
* 1967-1993 – professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
* 1969 – first HMS entering class to include black students, who had been recruited through the efforts of Eisenberg and his colleagues
* 1973 – DSc (Hon) University of Manchester, England
* 1973-1980 – Chairman, executive committee, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
* 1974-1977 – Member, Board of Consultation, Massachusetts General Hospital
* 1974-1980 – Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
* 1974-1992 – Senior associate in psychiatry, Children's Hospital Medical Center
* 1977-2009 – Honorary psychiatrist, Massachusetts General Hospital
* 1980-1991 – Chairman, Department of Social Medicine and Health Policy, Harvard Medical School (invited by then HMS Dean Daniel Tosteson)
* 1980-1993 – Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine
* 1987 – Name
Senior Fellow of the Harvard Program in Ethics and the Professions later to become th
Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethicsat
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
for which a partial historyis outlined on their website.
* 1991 – DSc (Hon) – University of Massachusetts
* 1992-2009 – Honorary Senior Staff Psychiatrist, Children's Hospital, Boston
* 1993 – Retirement from Harvard Medical School (then mandatory at age 65); becomes professor emeritus; continued to serve actively without pay but with his original chairman's office
* 1993-2009 – Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School
* 2009
Leon Eisenberg Chair of Child Psychiatry named at Children's Hospital Boston
* 2009 – Death at home (September 15)
Memberships, offices, and committee assignments in professional societies
*
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
(1947–2009)
American Federation for Clinical Research(1949–1966)
* Baltimore City Medical Society (1950–1967)
*
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...
(1952–2009); chair, Child Psychiatry Section '63-'65 trustee, '73-'76
*
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...
(1952–2009)
* Maryland Psychiatric Society (1952–1967); president, '59-'60
*
American Association of University Professors
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership includes over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations.
The AAUP's stated mission is ...
(1954); president, Johns Hopkins Chapter '60-'61
* Federation of American Scientists (1955–1970)
* Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases (1955–2009)
*
Society for Research in Child Development
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership of ...
(SRCD) (1956–2009)
*
American Public Health Association (1956–1972)
American Orthopsychiatric Association(1957–2009)
* Council Member,
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...
(1957–1968)
*
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is an American professional association of pediatricians, headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. It maintains its Department of Federal Affairs office in Washington, D.C.
Background
The Academy was founded ...
(1958–2009)
*
American Psychopathological Association
The American Psychopathological Association (APPA) is an organization "devoted to the scientific investigation of disordered human behavior, and its biological and psychosocial substrates." The association’s primary purpose is running an annual ...
(1958–2009)
*
Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) is an American professional organization of psychiatrists dedicated to shaping psychiatric thinking, public programs and clinical practice in mental health. Its 29 committees meet semi-annually and ...
(GAP) (1959–1962)
*
American Academy of Child Psychiatry (1961–1971)
* Psychiatric Research Society (1963–2009)
*
American Pediatric Society
The American Pediatric Society (APS) is the first pediatric society established in North America. Created in 1888, the APS pursues a vision of an engaged, inclusive, and impactful community of pediatric thought leaders. The APS mission is to sha ...
(1966–2009)
*
Massachusetts Medical Society
The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) is the oldest continuously operating state medical association in the United States. Incorporated on November 1, 1781, by an act of the Massachusetts General Court, the MMS is a non-profit organization th ...
(1967–2009)
*
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
(1968–2009); chair, Section II-5 Nominating Committee, 1993–95; Communications Secretary 1995-2002
*
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...
of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
(1973–2009); Council,
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...
, '75-'77; advisory committee, Strategies for the Prevention of Disease and the Promotion of Health, '77; membership committee, '78-'82; Program Committee, '79-'81; speaker, 1980 Annual Meeting; Research Panel, '86-'89; steering committee, National Strategy for Aids, '86-'89; Board on Health Sciences Policy, '88-'91; chair, Committee on Unintended Pregnancy and the Well-Being of Children and Families, '93-'95; chair, Committee on Building Bridges in the Brain, Behavioral and Clinical Sciences 1999–2000; chair, Interdisciplinary/Bridging Work In Health Disparities—
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equity, ...
Health and Society Scholars, October 13, 2008, at IOM Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
* Member, advisory committee to the director,
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(1977–1980)
* Advisory Board, General Academic Pediatrics Development Program,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equity, ...
(1981–1987)
* Member,
Rosalynn Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Carter ( ; née Smith; born August 18, 1927) is an American writer and activist who served as First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. For decades, she has been a leading advocate ...
Mental Health Task Force,
Carter Presidential Center of
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
(1990–2002)
* Communications Secretary,
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
(1995–2002)
* Member, Committee for
DSM V
DSM or dsm may refer to:
Science and technology
* Deep space maneuver
* Design structure matrix or dependency structure matrix, a representation of a system or project
* Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
** DSM-5, the fifth e ...
and ICD XII,
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...
(2006–2009)
* Member, Organizing Committee for Women and Medicine Conference, Bahamas, November 29 – December 3, 2006,
Josiah Macy Foundation (2006)
* Member, National Center for Science Education
Editorial boards
* ''Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry'' (1960–1983)
* ''Journal of Psychiatric Research'' (1962–1993)
* ''Child Development'' (1962–2009)
* ''
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
The ''American Journal of Orthopsychiatry'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering orthopsychiatry. It is published by the American Psychological Association on behalf of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice ...
'' (1963–1973)
* ''Communications in Behavioral Biology'' (1967–1972)
* ''Comprehensive Psychiatry'' (1971)
* ''Social Psychiatry'' (1971–1982)
* ''Psychosomatic Medicine'' (1972–1976)
* ''Journal of Pediatrics'' (1974–1980)
* ''Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry'' (1977)
* ''Psychological Medicine'' (1977–1990)
* ''International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research'' (1981–2000)
* ''The Future of Children'' (1991–2009)
r was it 2004?* ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' (2005–2009)
Academic committees
Leon Eisenberg served on seemingly countless academic and other committees at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Children's Hospital Boston. He was typically among the first thought and invited to such committees because of his breadth.
Attempts to identify a full set of such committees are proceeding.
Themes of most recent writing
Leon Eisenberg is credited by numerous colleagues with "simple and direct" prose (
Arthur Kleinman
Arthur Michael Kleinman (born March 11, 1941) is an American psychiatrist, psychiatric anthropologist and a professor of medical anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry at Harvard University. He is well known for his work on mental illness ...
Norma Ware etc.). He will be remembered most for his writings in these areas, though his encyclopedic comprehension reached much more broadly:
*
Evidence-based
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. While seemingly obviously desirable, the proposal has been controversial, with some arguing that results may not specialize to indivi ...
medicine
** Capacity of academics to accept ideas that are absurd and later rejected
* Why and how did
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
come to be so dominant for so long (the triumph of psychopharmacology over psychotherapy and changes in the way care was financed) has been explored repeatedly, but outlined here in two papers for different Josiah Macy Conferences:
** "Modern Psychiatry: Challenges in Educating Health Professionals to Meet New Needs"
** "The Challenge of Neuroscience: Behavioral Science, Neurology, and Psychiatry"
* Diagnostic classifications (see below) – a theme continued from the very beginning of his career
* Human rights of patients
*
Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
(COI) in the Practice of Psychiatry and Medicine
** Issues in rewriting the entire psychiatric taxonomy at one time (
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langua ...
= DSM): COI, empirical evidence to support DSM changes, timing of revisions
** Complicity of the medical and psychiatric professionals in torture.
** Criticizing the replacement of patient interests with the profit motive in healthcare.
** The relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and medical education through sponsorship and educational programs.
* Integration of genetics in health professional education
* Resolving the conflict between integrative medicine and evidence-based biomedicine
Later autobiographical reflections: "Were We Asleep at the Switch?"
Leon Eisenberg had written from his home a 'mini-autobiography' which he named
"Were We Asleep at the Switch?". Eisenberg suggested that a switch from 'mind' to 'body' has taken place in psychiatry as a discipline, which led to overuse of medication. He also argued that, while medical scientists were worrying about the tedious science at the base of medical practice and healthcare decisions for the general public, "money" and monied interests had been making de facto decisions for the populace about how things that affected them deeply were going to be done. In this view, the overwhelming impact of economic considerations over emerging bodies of expert knowledge may have rendered and might continue to render futile the professional contributions of many brilliant, timely, and concerned working scientists.
A 2012 article in the German weekly publication ''
Der Spiegel
''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' gives an account of an interview Eisenberg gave in 2009, seven months before his death. It quotes him as saying, "
ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...
is a prime example of a fabricated disease... The genetic predisposition to ADHD is completely overrated." Instead of prescribing a 'pill', Eisenberg said, psychiatrists should determine whether there are psychosocial reasons that could lead to behavioral problems.
Earliest papers
* Bazett HC, Love L, Newton L, Eisenberg L, Day R, Forster R. (1948) Temperature changes in blood flowing in arteries and veins in man. ''J Appl Physiol.'' pp. 1:3-19.
* Eisenberg L. (1953) Treatment of the emotionally disturbed pre-adolescent child. ''Proc Child Research Clinic Woods Schools''. 35:30-41.
* Kanner L and Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry; mental deficiency. ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 1955: 111:520-523.
* Eisenberg, L. (1956)
The autistic child in adolescence ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 112, pp. 607–612. Reprinted in: Alexander et al., eds.
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era.
Biological psychopatholo ...
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959.
* Kanner L and Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry; mental deficiency. Am J Psychiat. 1956; 112:531-534.
* Kanner, L. & Eisenberg, L. (1956), Early Infantile Autism 1943–1955, ''
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
The ''American Journal of Orthopsychiatry'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering orthopsychiatry. It is published by the American Psychological Association on behalf of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice ...
'' 26, pp. 55–65. Reprinted in: Alexander et al., eds. Op. cit. Reprinted in ''Psychiat. Res. Repts.'' 1957 (April), American Psychiatric Assn., pp. 55–65.
* Eisenberg L. The parent-child relationship and the physician. AMA J Dis of Children. 1956; 91:153-157.
* Eisenberg L. Dynamic considerations underlying the management of the brain-damaged child. GP. 1956; 14:101-106.
* Glaser K and Eisenberg L. Maternal deprivation. Pediatrics 1956; 18:626-642.
* Kanner L and Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry: mental deficiency. Am J Psychiat. 1957; 113:617.
* Eisenberg L. Psychiatric implications of brain damage in children. Psychiatric Quarterly. 1957; 31:72-92.
* Eisenberg L. Progress in neuropsychiatry. J Ped. 1957; 51:334-349.
* Eisenberg L. The course of childhood schizophrenia. Arch Neurol Psychiat. 1957; 78:69-83.
* Kanner L and Eisenberg L. Childhood problems in relation to the family. Pediatrics 1957; 20:155-164.
* Eisenberg L
The fathers of autistic children American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 1957; 27:715-724.
* Kanner L and Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry; mental deficiency. Am J Psychiat. 1958; 114:609-615.
* Eisenberg L
School phobia: a study in the communication of anxiety Am J Psychiat. 1958; 114:712-718. Reprinted in: Trapp EP and Himmelstein P, eds. Readings on the exceptional child. New York: Appleton, 1962. Reprinted in: Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences, 1966, p. 433. Reprinted in: Davids A, ed. Issues in abnormal child psychology. California: Brooks/Cole, 1973.
* Eisenberg L. Discussion: roundtable symposium on desegregation (segregation-integration). Am J Orthopsychiat. 1958; 28:33-35.
* Eisenberg L. An evaluation of psychiatric consultation service for a public agency. Am J Public Health. 1958; 48(6):742-749.
* Eisenberg L. Emotional determinants of mental deficiency. Arch Neurol Psychiat. 1958; 80:114-121.
* Eisenberg L. Diagnosis, genesis, and clinical management of school phobia. Ped Clin North America. 1958 (August); 645–666.
* Eisenberg L, Marlowe B and Hastings M. Diagnostic services for maladjusted foster children: An orientation toward an acute need. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1958; 28(4):750-763.
* Kanner L and Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry and mental deficiency. Am J Psychiat. 1959; 115:608-611.
* Eisenberg L, Ascher E and Kanner L. A clinical study of Gilles de la Tourette's disease (maladie des tics) in children. Am J Psychiat. 1959; 115:715-523.
* Eisenberg L. Office evaluation of specific reading disability in children. Pediatrics. 1959 (May); 23(5):997-1003.
*
Rodriguez A, Rodriguez M, and Eisenberg L. The outcome of school phobia: a follow up study. Am J Psychiat. 1959 (December); 116:540-544.
* Eisenberg L. The pediatric management of school phobia. J Pediatrics. 1959 (December); 55(6):758-766.
* Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry; mental deficiency. Am J Psychiat. 1960; 116:604.
* Eisenberg L. Conceptual problems in relating brain and behavior. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1960; 30:37-48.
* Cytryn L, Gilbert A, and Eisenberg L. The effectiveness of tranquilizing drugs plus supportive psychotherapy in treating behavior disorders of children. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1960; 30:113-129.
* Eisenberg L. The challenge of change. Child Welfare. 1960 (April); 39:11-18.
* Lesser LI, Ashenden BJ, Debuskey M, and Eisenberg L. A clinical study of anorexia nervosa in children. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1960; 30:572-580.
* Eisenberg L and Gruenberg EM. The current status of secondary prevention in child psychiatry. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1961; 31:355-367.
* Eisenberg L, Gilbert A, Cytryn L, and Molling PA. The effectiveness of psychotherapy alone and in conjunction with perphenazine and placebo in the treatment of neurotic and hyperkinetic children. Am J Psychiat. 1961; 117:1088-1093.
* Bahn AK, Chandler CA, and Eisenberg L. Diagnostic and demographic characteristics of patients seen in outpatient psychiatric clinics for an entire state (Maryland): implications for the psychiatrist and the mental health program planner. Am J Psychiat. 1961 (March); 117:769-777.
* Eisenberg L. The strategic deployment of the child psychiatrist in preventive psychiatry. J Child Psychol Psychiat. 1961; 2:229-241. Reprinted in: Proc III World Congress on Psychiatry. Montreal, 1961, pp. 280–284.
* Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry; mental deficiency 1960. Am J Psychiat. 1961 (January); 117:601-604.
* Eisenberg L, Landowne EJ, Wilner DM and Imber SD. The use of teacher ratings in a mental health study: a method for measuring the effectiveness of a therapeutic nursery program. Am J Pub Hlth. 1962 (January); 52:18-28.
* Eisenberg L. The sins of the fathers: urban decay and social pathology. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1962 (January); 32:5-17. Presented as lecture at 55th Annual Meeting of The Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, June 4, 1968.
* Bahn A, Chandler C and Eisenberg L. Diagnostic characteristics related to services in psychiatric clinics for children. Milbank Mem Fund Quart. 1962 (July); 40:289-318.
* Molling P, Lockner A, Sauls R and Eisenberg L. Committed delinquent boys: The impact of perphenazine and placebo. Arch Gen Psychiat. 1962 (July); 1:70-76.
* Eisenberg L. Preventive psychiatry. Annu Rev Med. 1962; 13:343-360.
* Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry; mental deficiency. Am J Psychiat. 1962; 118:600-605.
* Eisenberg L. Possibilities for a preventive psychiatry. Pediatrics. 1962; 30:815-828.
* Eisenberg L. If not now, when? Am J Orthopsychiat. 1962; 32:781-793. Reprinted in: Canada's Mental Health Suppl #36, April 1963. Reprinted in: World Mental Health. 1963; 5:48-64. Reprinted in: David HP, ed. International Trends in Mental Health. New York: McGraw Hill, 1965. Reprinted in: Child and Family. 1965(1); 4:84-91.
* Eisenberg L, Lachman R, Molling P, Lockner A, Mizelle J and Conners K. A psychopharmacologic study in a training school for delinquent boys. Am J Orthopsychiat. 1963 (April); 33:431-447.
* Oleinick M, Bahn A, Eisenberg L, and Lilienfeld A.
Early socialization experiences and intrafamilial environment ''Archives of General Psychiatry'' 1966 (October); 15:344-353.
Select publications
* Eisenberg, L. "Can Human Emotions Be Changed?" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 1966, p. 29.
* Eisenberg L. Clinical considerations in the psychiatric evaluation of intelligence. In: Zubin J and Jervis GA, Eds. Psychopathology of mental development. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1967:502 513.
* Eisenberg L. Social class and individual development. In: Robert W. Gibson, Ed. Crosscurrents in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Philadelphia and Toronto: J.B. Lippincott, 1967. London: Pitman Medical. 1968.
ited (1981) in Sir Michael Rutter's Maternal Deprivation Reassessed, Penguin Modern Psychology.* Eisenberg L. The social development of human intelligence. ''Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin'' 1968; 43:2-7; reprinted (1969) in H. Freemen, Ed. Progress in Mental Health. Churchill.
* Eisenberg L, Berlin, CI, Dill A and Frank S. Class and race effects on the intelligibility of monosyllables. ''Child Development'' 1968 (December);39(4):1077-1089.
* Eisenberg L. Au-dela de l'heridite: le test de l'evolution. ''La Psychiatrie de l'Enfant''. 1968; 11:572-588.
* Eisenberg L. The interaction of biological and experiential factors in schizophrenia. ''Journal of Psychiatric Research'' 1968 (November, Supplement #1);6:403-409.
* Eisenberg L. Child psychiatry: the past quarter century. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 1969(April); 39(3):389-401. Reprinted in: Davids A, Ed. Issues in abnormal child psychology. California: Brooks/Cole, 1973.
* Koupernik C and Eisenberg L. Réflexions sur l'autisme infantile (1943–1969)
eflections on infantile autism (1943–1969) ''Confrontations Psychiatriques'' (P''sychiatric Confrontations''). 1969; 2(3):31-55.
* Conners CK, Rothschild G, Eisenberg L, Schwartz LS and Robinson E. Dextroamphetamine sulfate in children with learning disorders. ''Archives of General Psychiatry'' 1969 (August);21:182-190.
* Rutter M, Lebovici S, Eisenberg L, Sneznevskij A V, Sadoun R, Brooke E and Lin T Y. A triaxial classification of mental disorders in childhood. ''Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry'' 1969 (December);10:41-61.
ited (1981) in Sir Michael Rutter's Maternal Deprivation Reassessed, Penguin Modern Psychology.* Eisenberg, L. "The Human Nature of Human Nature" ''Science'', vol.176, 1972, p. 126.
* Eisenberg L. "Psychiatric intervention" ''Scientific American'' 229; 116 127. Reprinted in: Humber JM and Almeder RF (Eds.) Biomedical Ethics and the Law. New York: Plenum, 1976. Reprinted in: Humber JM and Almeder RF (Eds.) Biomedical Ethics and the Law. 2nd Edition. New York: Plenum, 1979, pp. 109 120.
* Eisenberg L. The perils of prevention: a cautionary note. ''New England Journal of Medicine'' 1977 (December 1);297:1230 1232.
* Eisenberg L. Introduction. In:
Marmor J.Psychiatry in transition New York: Bruner/Mazel, 1974:v viii.
* Eisenberg L. Foreword. In: Thomas A an
The dynamics of psychological development
New York: Bruner/Mazel, 1980:ix xvii.
* Eisenberg, L.
Mindlessness and brainlessness in psychiatry
The Eli Lilly Lecture, Winter Quarterly Meeting. Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, 21 January 1986. ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' 1986;148:497-508.
* Eisenberg, L. "Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...
: the physician as politician" ''Medicine and War'' 1986;2(4):243-250.
* Eisenberg, L. "From circumstance to mechanism in pediatrics during the Hopkins century. Pediatrics. 1990; 85:42-49.
* Eisenberg, L. "Subject and object in the grammar of medicine" ''Penn Medicine'' 1992(Fall);6:18-28.
* Eisenberg L. "The Social Construction of the Human Brain", ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 152: 1563–1575, 1995. Translated into Italian as: ''La Costruzione Sociale Del Cervello Umano'' Sapere 62(5):46-58, 1996.
* Eisenberg L. "Nature, niche and nurture: the role of social experience in transforming genotype into phenotype." ''Academic Psychiatry''. 1998; 22:213-222. Reprinted in Epidemiologia E Psichiatria Sociale 1999; 8:190-7. Translated as: Naturaleza, Entorno Y Crianza. El Papel de la Experiencia Social en la Transformacion del Genotipo en Fenotipo. ''Psychiatria Publica'' 1999; 11:139-46.
* Eisenberg L. "Would cloned human beings be like sheep?" ''New England Journal of Medicine''. 1999; 340: 471–475. Reprinted in Klotzko AJ (Ed) (2001) The Cloning Source Book. N.Y., Oxford University Press pp. 70–79.
* Eisenberg, L. "Does social medicine still matter in an era of molecular medicine?" ''Journal of Urban Health'' 1999; 76: 164–175.
* Eisenberg, L. "Whatever Happened to the Faculty on the Way to the Agora?" ''Archives of Internal Medicine'' 1999;125:251-6.
* Eisenberg, L. "Is Psychiatry More Mindful or Brainier than it was a Decade Ago?" ''British Journal of Psychiatry
The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic.
The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publis ...
''. 2000;176.1-5.
* Eisenberg, L. "Good Technical Outcome, Poor Service Experience: A Verdict on Contemporary Medical Care?" ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' 2001;285:2639-2641; in reply. ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' 2001;286:1315.
* Eisenberg, L.
From Molecules to Mind
''Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal'' 2002;7:3.
* Eisenberg, L. "Social Psychiatry and the Human Genome: Contextualizing Heritability" ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' 2004;184:101-103.
* Eisenberg L. "Letter to the Editor: Which Image for Lorenz?" ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 2004;161:1760.
* Eisenberg L. "When "ADHD" was "the Brain-Damaged Child"", ''Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology'' 2007;17(3):279-283.
*Eisenberg L. cowritten with Javad Nurbakhsh
Javad Nurbakhsh (10 December 1926 – 10 October 2008) was the Master ('' pir'') of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order from 1953 until his death. He was also a psychiatrist and a successful writer in the fields of both psychiatry and Sufi mysticism.
Li ...
; and Hamideh Jahangiri; ''Handbook of Psychiatry'' volume 29 , 2019.
Many of Leon Eisenberg's books and papers have been translated into both European and non-European languages and have been widely cited.
Papers written from consulting
Kleinman A, Eisenberg L, Desjarlais R (Eds) (1995), World Mental Health: Priorities and Problems in Low-Income Countries. New York:
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
* Translated into Spanish as: Salud Mental en el Mundo b
I. Levavand R. Gonzalez and published by Organizacion Pan Americana del Salud, Washington, 1997.
* Translated into Italian as:
a Salute Mentale nel Mondo: Problemi e priorità La Salute Mentale nel Mondo: Problemi e priorità nelle popolazioni a basso redditoby C. Belotti, G. de Girolamo, A. Fioritti, and V. Melaga and published by Il Mulino/Alfa tape, Bologna, Italy, 1998.
* Translated into Ukrainian 2001.
Awards
* Sc. D. (Hon), University of Manchester in the UK (1973)
* Sc. D. (Hon), University of Massachusetts in the U.S (1991)
* Theobald Smith Award, Albany Medical College (1979)
* Aldrich Richmond Award,
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is an American professional association of pediatricians, headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. It maintains its Department of Federal Affairs office in Washington, D.C.
Background
The Academy was founded ...
(1980)
* Dale Richmond Awards, American Academy of Pediatrics (1989)
*
Samuel T. Ortonbr>
Award Orton Society (1980)
* Special Presidential Commendation,
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...
(1992)
Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Prevention American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...
(1994)
* Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Pennsylvania (1992)
*
Camille Cosby
Camille Olivia Cosby ( Hanks; born March 20, 1944) is an American television producer, philanthropist, and the wife of comedian Bill Cosby. The character of Clair Huxtable from ''The Cosby Show'' was based on her. Cosby has avoided public life, b ...
Award
Judge Baker Children's Center(1994)
* Thomas W. Salmon Medal, New York Academy of Medicine (1995)
* Blanche F. Ittleson Memorial Award, American Orthopsychiatric Association (1996)
* Mumford Award, Columbia University School of Public Health (1996)
*
Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Mental Health,
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...
(1996)
* Award for Distinguished Contribution to Public Policy, SRCD (
Society for Research in Child Development
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership of ...
) (2003)
* Distinguished Service Award, American Psychiatric Association
* Walsh McDermott Medal,
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...
and the National Academies
* Benjamin Rush Medal and Lecture, American Psychiatric Institute (2006)
* Epidemiology Award,
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...
(2007)
* Harold Amos Diversity Award,
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
(2008)
Juan José López Ibor Award World Psychiatric Association
The World Psychiatric Association is an international umbrella organisation of psychiatric societies.
Objectives and goals
Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote profess ...
(WPA), granted at the World Congress of Psychiatry in Prague, The Czech Republic (2008)
* Honorary Fellow, Greek Society of Neurology and Psychiatry
* Honorary Fellow, Ecuadorian Academy of Neuroscience
* Honorary Fellow,
Royal College of Psychiatrists
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...
(UK)
Awards named for Leon Eisenberg
![2017-05-09 Shekhar Saxen with Award](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/2017-05-09_Shekhar_Saxen_with_Award.jpg)
Several late-in-life and posthumous awards were developed to continue the legacy of Eisenberg.
* Leon Eisenberg Chair in Child Psychiatry, Children's Hospital Boston(named June 22, 2009)
* The Leon Eisenberg Award, conferred annually (in the Spring) by the Program in Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD),
Children's Hospital Boston
Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Sch ...
, beginning April 28, 2010.
* The Leon Eisenberg Scholarship (given to one deserving medical student at
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...
)
* The Leon and Carola Eisenberg Award from
Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
See also
*
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
(AmAcad)
*
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...
*
NARSAD
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds mental health
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It ...
*
NIMH NIMH may refer to:
*Nickel–metal hydride battery (NiMH), a type of electrical battery
*National Institute of Mental Health, an agency of the United States government
*National Institute of Medical Herbalists, a professional organisation in the Un ...
*
Physicians for Human Rights
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...
*
Separation anxiety disorder
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is an anxiety disorder in which an individual experiences excessive anxiety regarding separation from home and/or from people to whom the individual has a strong emotional attachment (e.g., a parent, caregiver ...
*
Randomized controlled trial
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical te ...
*
Overdiagnosis
Overdiagnosis is the diagnosis of disease that will never cause symptoms or death during a patient's ordinarily expected lifetime and thus presents no practical threat regardless of being pathologic. Overdiagnosis is a side effect of screening fo ...
*
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psych ...
*
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
References
External links
Leon Eisenberg, MD, Faculty profile pageLeon Eisenberg: Dedicated to Letting the Outsider In, HMS Focus, Harvard Medical School, 02-22-2008, by Misia Landau, Senior Science WriterDepartment of Global Health and Social Medicineof th
Harvard Medical SchoolHistory of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics: February 2003 - Volume 24 - Issue - pp S1-S18, by Robert J. Haggerty, MD, and Stanford B. Friedman, MD6/25/2009 Harvard Gazette story about the Leon Eisenberg Professorship in Child Psychiatry09/11/2008 Harvard Gazette story about Leon Eisenberg's winning the first Juan José López Ibor Award from the WPA, the World Psychiatric AssociationHarvardScience 08/28/2008 online story about Leon Eisenberg's winning the first Juan José López Ibor Award from the WPA, the World Psychiatric AssociationLegacy.com obituaryDr. Alan Guttmacher, Acting Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, Leon Eisenberg's stepson, defines autismThe Hopkins Years: Alejandro Rodriguez takes charge after Eisenberg leaves for BostonCarola Eisenberg papers, 1945-2006 (inclusive), 1977-2006 (bulk), H MS c254. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.Leon Eisenberg papers, 1905-2009 (inclusive), 1968-2005 (bulk). H MS c196. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenberg, Leon
1922 births
2009 deaths
Deaths from prostate cancer
Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts
20th-century American Jews
American child psychiatrists
Harvard Medical School faculty
Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians
Writers from Philadelphia
Members of the National Academy of Medicine
Writers from Boston
Psychiatry academics
Fellows of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
Physicians of Massachusetts General Hospital
21st-century American Jews