Paul Rosenfels (March 21, 1909 in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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– 1985 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 ...
) was an American
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 ...
and
psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, 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 bo ...
. Rosenfels is known as one of the first
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
social scientist
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of socie ...
s to publish about
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
as part of the human condition, as opposed to his contemporaries who largely defined homosexuality as an illness or deviation. After leaving the academic field of psychiatry in the 1940s, he developed some of his own thinking and a larger philosophy. He published ''Homosexuality: The Psychology of the Creative Process'' in 1971, along with other books discussing psychiatry and psychoanalysis.
In the 1940s Rosenfels left Chicago and his family, moving to California. He moved to New York City in 1962, where he established a private practice. He devoted himself to developing the foundations of a "
science of human nature." In 1973 with Dean Hannotte, he founded the
Ninth Street Center 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 ...
, which provided peer counseling and discussion groups.
Early life and education
Paul Rosenfels was born in 1909 into a Jewish family in
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...
. He had an older brother, Richard, an identical twin brother, Walter, and younger sister,
Edith Nash
Edith Nash (July 12, 1913 – November 9, 2003) was an American educator and poet. She served as the second director of the Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC from 1961-1975. She and her husband Philleo Nash, who served as a political appoin ...
.
[Dean Hannotte, "A Conversation with Edith Nash"](_blank)
Paul Rosenfels Community website His mother was politically liberal. She served on the Abraham Lincoln Center Board on the South Side of Chicago. His father, a businessman who supported capitalism, died in 1935. In terms of family dynamics, Edith believed she was the favorite of their father. She said he found the boys difficult to deal with, and Richard was preferred by their mother.
Richard earned a PhD in botany. Paul became a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and Walter worked in ad copywriting, where he had more flexibility.
As they grew up, the three brothers realized they were
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
, but never discussed it openly with their parents.
Only Paul among the brothers married and had a child. Edith married, became an educator and poet, and had two children.
Rosenfels' first passion was history, and in high school he drafted a book on the causes of war. In college he met
Harold D. Lasswell, who told him that new insights into the psychology of war and the politicians who cause them would in the future be provided by the new science of
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 ...
. Convinced that this tool could help him make an important contribution to the welfare of humanity, Rosenfels spent the next decade doing undergraduate work at
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
and earning an M.D. at
Rush Medical College
Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, located in the Illinois Medical District, about 3 km (2 miles) west of the Loop in Chicago. Offering a full-time Doctor of Medicine program, the school was chartered in 1837, and ...
; he became board-certified as a
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 ...
.
During this period Rosenfels married Joan Maris, a friend of his sister Edith.
[Edith Nash, "Some Reminiscences about Paul"](_blank)
''Ninth Street Journal'', Vol. 7, Winter 1987, accessed 17 March 2014 They had a son together: Danny.
Professional career
Beginning to practice psychiatry, Rosenfels also studied with
Franz Alexander
Franz Gabriel Alexander (22 January 1891 – 8 March 1964) was a Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and physician, who is considered one of the founders of psychosomatic medicine and psychoanalytic criminology.
Life
Franz Gabriel Alexander, i ...
, a former student of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
, at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. He became licensed as a
psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, 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 bo ...
.
He served as a Lt. Colonel in the Medical Corps during World War II. After his return, he taught as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, particularly in psychiatry and law.
Rosenfels rapidly developed a successful private practice and was especially effective in helping women. He lectured at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
on psychiatry and the law. After achieving these successes, he became more interested in working to develop larger ideas about human nature, rather than be constrained by details of diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses.
Science of human nature
Rosenfels began to feel that he did not belong in the academic fraternity. He was interested in the larger views of philosophers such as
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
and
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...
, who held that the most important task for moral philosophers was the founding of a
science of human nature. Rosenfels believed that it was insufficient to focus on the physiology of the nervous system and rejected the idea that concepts such as love and power could not be studied by scientific methods.
After serving in the military, Rosenfels accepted a job as Chief Psychiatrist, Reception-Guidance Center of the Department of Corrections, State of California. He had to leave as he did not have a medical license in California.
He returned to the Chicago area for a time in his last institutional position, as Chief of the Outpatient Clinic, Forest Hospital, in
Des Plaines, Illinois
Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 60,675. The city is a suburb of Chicago and is located just north of O'Hare International Airport. It is situated on and is named after the ...
.
Rosenfels left Illinois, returning to California, where he supported himself by working as a cook. At the same time, he abandoned his effort to fit into the mainstream by suppressing his homosexuality. He had married and had a family, but was no longer willing to accept psychiatrists’ classification of homosexuality as an illness to be controlled and denied. He wanted to accept what he could only call "something feminine" about himself. He believed at the time that his professional colleagues would never accept him again if he openly espoused these ideas.
Rosenfels was rethinking his ideas about human nature. He developed "polarity" as an organizing principle within and among individuals. In his mature works, he uses his unified and self-consistent vocabulary to explore human nature.
In the early 1960s, he lived for a short time with his sister Edith and her family in Washington, DC, when he was in crisis. He had stayed with his brother Walter for a time before that.
The Ninth Street Center
In 1962 Rosenfels moved to New York City, where he established a private practice that attracted numerous gay men. In 1971 he published ''Homosexuality: The Psychology of the Creative Process'', the first book that suggested it was a valid way to live.
''
Gay Magazine
The following is a list of periodicals (printed magazines, journals and newspapers) aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) demographic by country.
Australia
The most comprehensive holdings of LGBT periodicals is found at ...
'' described Rosenfels as "the Giant of the New Free Gay Culture." Some of his clients in therapy became students of his thinking.
In 1973 he,
Dean Hannotte, and their students opened The Ninth Street Center on the
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
, an all-volunteer organization devoted to helping unconventional people live creatively in the world. It initially attracted many young gay men. As the Center slowly matured, its members served a growing community of lesbians, as well as gay men, and straight people. Their clients included people who believed that human potential, in the words of one of their pamphlets, was "too important to leave to professionals."
Rosenfels felt the tragic nature of the world. He continued to study people and always said he was "only one page ahead of the class." He readily acknowledged the expanse of what we do not know, and said that science can teach us only what we are willing to learn.
Works
*1962, ''Love and Power'', self-published, Libra Press
*1971, ''Homosexuality: The Psychology of the Creative Process'', reprinted in 1973, paperback in 1986
*1975, ''The Relationship of Adaptation and Fun and Pleasure to Psychological Growth'' (Ninth Street Center monograph)
*1977, ''The Nature of Civilization: A Psychological Analysis'' (Ninth Street Center Monograph)
*1979, ''A Renegade Psychiatrist's Story'' (Ninth Street Center monograph)
*1980, ''Freud and the Scientific Method'' (Ninth Street Center monograph)
*1987, ''The Nature of Psychological Maturity'' (Ninth Street Center monograph)
References
External links
More about Paul Rosenfels Paul Rosenfels Community (formerly The Ninth Street Center) website
Paul Rosenfels, ''Homosexuality'' 1971 edition online
Paul Rosenfels, ''Love and Power: The Psychology of Interpersonal Creativity'' 1966 edition online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenfels, Paul
American psychiatrists
American sociologists
University of Chicago alumni
American gay writers
1909 births
1985 deaths
American LGBT scientists
20th-century American physicians
Gay academics
Gay scientists
20th-century LGBT people