Nathan W. Ackerman (November 22, 1908, Bessarabia,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– June 12, 1971, New York) was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and one of the most important pioneers of the field of family therapy. He also was an expert in marriage counselling.

Biography

Ackerman was born to David Ackerman and Bertha Greenberg, both

pharmacists A pharmacist, also known as a chemist ( Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instru ...

. Ackerman obtained his

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1933. He assumed the post of chief psychiatrist at the ''Menninger Child Guidance Clinic'' (see

Menninger Foundation The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Foundation, known locally as Menninger's, consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. ...

) in 1937. In 1955, he contributed to the founding of the American Academy 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 ...

. In 1957 he founded the ''Family Mental Health Clinic'' in New York, and the ''Family Institute'' in 1960, which was later renamed the Ackerman Institute after his death in New York in 1971. In 1961 he co-founded the first ever family therapy journal '' Family Process'' with

Donald deAvila Jackson __NOTOC__ Donald deAvila Jackson, M.D. (2 January 1920 – 29 January 1968) was an American psychiatrist best known for his pioneering work in family therapy. From 1947 to 1951, he studied under Harry Stack Sullivan. From 1953 to 1962, he worked ...

and

Jay Haley Jay Douglas Haley (July 19, 1923 – February 13, 2007) was one of the founding figures of brief and family therapy in general and of the strategic model of psychotherapy, and he was one of the more accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, an ...

. Ackerman attended a public school in New York City. In 1929 he was awarded a B.A. from Columbia University, and in 1933 earned his M.D. from the same university. After a short spell (1933–34) as an intern at the Montefiore Hospital in New York, he interned at the Menninger Clinic and Sanitorium in Topeka, Kansas. He joined their psychiatric staff in 1935.

Works

Ackerman greatly influenced and concentrated on the study on psychosexual stages on character formation and was one of the first clinicians to attempt to integrate insights from individual psychotherapy with the then newer ideas from

systems theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

. He is best known for his contribution to the development of the

psychodynamic Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate t ...

approach to family therapy. With regards to family therapy, Ackerman incorporated the idea of "the family being a social and emotional unit." His main focuses, with respect to family therapy, were intergenerational ties and conflicts, the influence of long-term social change impacting the family, the developmental stages of the family as a single unit, the importance of emotion within the family structure, and equal amounts of authority among parents.

Bibliography

* * *Ackerman, N.W. (1958)
''The Psychodynamics of Family Life.''
Basic Books: New York. *Ackerman, N.W., Beatman, F.L. & Sherman, S.N. (Eds.) (1961)
''Exploring the base for family therapy: papers from the M. Robert Gomberg Memorial Conference (held on June 2 and 3 1960, at the Academy of Medicine, New York, N.Y.)''
Family Service Association of America: New York. *Ackerman, N.W. (1962)
Family Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis: The Implications of Difference.
''Family Process.'' 1 (1) pp. 30–43, March 1962. *Ackerman, N.W. (1966)
''Treating the Troubled Family.''"> ''Treating the Troubled Family.''
Basic Books: New York. *Ackerman, N.W. (1970)
''Family process.''
Basic Books: New York. *Ackerman, N.W., co-written 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 (2019).

Death

Nathan Ackerman died of a heart attack in 1971 in Putnam Valley, New York

References

External links