The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeastern Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2020 cen ...

. The Menninger Foundation, known locally as Menninger's, consists of a

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

, a

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a health ...

, and a school of

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

, all of which bear the Menninger name. Menninger's consisted of a campus at 5800 S.W. 6th Avenue in

which included a pool as well as the other aforementioned buildings. In 2003, the Menninger Clinic moved to

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The foundation was started in 1919 by Dr. Charles F. Menninger and his sons, Drs.

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...

and

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

Menninger. It represented the first group

practice. "We had a vision," Dr. C. F. Menninger said, "of a better kind of medicine and a better kind of world."

History

The Menninger Clinic, also known as the C. F. Menninger Memorial Hospital, was founded in the 1920s in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Sanitarium was founded in 1925. The Menninger Clinic established the Southard School for

child A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

ren in 1926. The school fostered treatment programs for children and

adolescents Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...

that were recognized worldwide. In the 1930s the Menningers expanded

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

programs for psychiatrists,

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

s, and other mental health professionals. The Menninger Foundation was established in 1941. The Menninger School of Psychiatry was established in 1946. It quickly became the largest training center in the country, driven by the country's demand for psychiatrists to treat military veterans. Menninger announced its affiliation with

Baylor College of Medicine The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a private medical school in Houston, Texas, United States. Originally as the Baylor University College of Medicine from 1903 to 1969, the college became independent with the current name and has been se ...

and

The Methodist Hospital Houston Methodist Hospital is the flagship quaternary care hospital of Houston Methodist academic medical center. Located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, Houston Methodist Hospital was established in 1919 during the height of t ...

in December 2002. The concept was that Menninger would perform treatment while Baylor would oversee research and education.

Moves

The Menninger Clinic moved in June 2003 from

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The Menninger Clinic again moved to its new location at 12301 S. Main St., Houston, Texas, 77035 in May 2012.

Current facilities

As of May 2012, The Menninger Clinic offers: Adolescent Treatment Program, a Professionals Program, the Compass Program for Young Adults, the Comprehensive Psychiatric Assessment & Stabilization Program, an Assessments Service and the Hope Program for Adults.

Revolution in psychiatric education

The Menninger School of Psychiatry and the local

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

Hospital represented the center of a psychiatric education revolution. The Clinic and the School became the hub for training professionals in the bio-psycho-social approach. This approach integrated the foundations of

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

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 ...

, developmental, and

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

systems to focus on the overall

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

of patients. For patients, this way of treatment attended to their physical,

emotion Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavior, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is ...

al, and social needs. Dr. Otto Fleischmann, head of the psychoanalytic institute from 1956 to 1963, was doing psychotherapy behind a one-way vision screen, in full view of all the students. In 1960 Otto Kernberg joined the Clinic and later became its director until 1965.

Karl Menninger

Dr. Karl Menninger's first

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

, ''The Human Mind'' (1930), became a

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

and familiarized the American public with

human behavior Human behavior is the potential and expressed capacity (Energy (psychological), mentally, Physical activity, physically, and Social action, socially) of human individuals or groups to respond to internal and external Stimulation, stimuli throu ...

. Many Americans also read his subsequent books, including ''The Vital Balance'', ''Man Against Himself'' and ''Love Against Hate''.

Will Menninger

Dr. Will Menninger made a major contribution to the field of psychiatry when he developed a system of hospital treatment known as milieu therapy. This approach involved a patient's total environment in treatment. Dr. Menninger served as Chief of the Army Medical Corps' Psychiatric Division during World War II. Under his leadership, the Army reduced losses in personnel due to psychological impairment. In 1945, the Army promoted Dr. Menninger to brigadier general. After the war, Dr. Menninger led a national revolution to reform state sanitariums. In 1948, ''Time'' magazine featured Dr. Menninger on its cover, lauding him as "psychiatry’s U.S. sales manager."

Activities

At the Menninger Clinic, staff proceeded to launch new treatment approaches and open specialty programs. The Menninger Foundation gained a reputation for intensive, individualized treatment, particularly for patients with complex or long-standing symptoms. The treatment approach was multidimensional, addressing a patient's medical, psychological, and social needs. Numerous independent organizations recognized the Menninger Foundation as a world leader in psychiatric and behavioral health treatment. In 2020, ''US News & World Report'' listed Houston’s Menninger Clinic #5 in Psychiatry on their annual list of best hospitals. The Menninger Clinic remains one of the primary North American settings supporting psychodynamically informed research on clinical diagnosis, assessment, and treatment. It has organized efforts around the construct of mentalizing, a concept integrating research activities related to attachment, theory of mind, internal representations, and neuroscience. In the 1960s the Menninger Clinic studied

Swami Rama Swami Rama (; 1925 – 13 November 1996) was an Indian yoga guru. He moved to the US in 1969, initially teaching yoga at the YMCA, and founding the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Illinois in 1971; its headquarters moved t ...

, a noted

yogi A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), ''Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha'', Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297–299, 331 ...

, specifically investigating his ability to exercise voluntary control of bodily processes (such as heartbeat) which are normally considered non-voluntary (autonomous) as well as Yoga Nidra. It was part of Gardner Murphy's research program into creativity and the paranormal, funded by Ittleson Family Foundation.

References

* Lawrence Jacob Friedman, ''Menninger: The Family and the Clinic'', University Press of Kansas, 1992 (Reprint) * Robert S. Wallerstein, ''Forty-two lives in treatment : a study of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy : the report of the Psychotherapy Research Project of the Menninger Foundation, 1954-1982'', New York : Other Press, 2000

External links

Menninger Clinic official website

''The Topeka Capital Journals in-depth coverage of Menninger leaving Topeka - index page

''U.S. News & World Report'' psychiatric hospital rankings

Menninger Foundation Archives
from Kansas State

Historical Society A historical society is non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and promoting the history of a particular place, group of people, or topic. They play a crucial role in promoting historical awareness and understan ...

Access Menninger photographs and documents on Kansas Memory, the Kansas State Historical Society's digital portal

* ttps://www.kansasmemory.org/item/222590 ''Staff of Psychotherapy Research Project at Menninger in Topeka, Kansas'' 1959, at Kansas Memory, not in PD {{authority control Biomedical research foundations Mental health organizations based in Kansas History of psychiatry Psychoanalysis in the United States Mental health organizations based in Texas Medical and health foundations based in the United States