Erich Lindemann (born 2 May 1900 in Witten, Germany) was a German-American writer and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

, specializing in

bereavement Grief is the response to the loss of something deemed important, particularly to the death of a person to whom or animal to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also ha ...

. He worked at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

as the Chief of Psychiatry and is noted for his extensive study on the effects of traumatic events on survivors and families after the Cocoanut Grove night club fire in 1942. His contributions to the field of

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

led to the naming of a joint

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

–

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

-run mental health complex in Boston in his honor, the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center. He died on November 16, 1974.

Education

Lindemann was a graduate of the University hospital Gießen und Marburg and the Academy of Medicine in Düsseldorf, earning his doctorate in psychology in 1922 and his

doctorate in medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

in 1927. In the same year he earned a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

ship to

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, and in 1929 made his move to the United States permanent.

Work

Author of "Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief", a paper on

posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...

. It was published in September 1944. Studied the survivors of the

Cocoanut Grove fire The Cocoanut Grove fire was a nightclub fire which took place in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1942, and resulted in the deaths of 492 people. It is the deadliest nightclub fire in history and the third-deadliest single-building fire (a ...

(1942), which was the deadliest

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

fire in

United States history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

. Developed the field of Community Mental Health and Social Psychiatry. Created the first community mental health center in the United States: the Wellesley Human Relations Service.

References

*David G. Satin, M.D. Community Mental Health, Erich Lindemann, and Social Conscience in American Psychiatry (New York, Routledge, 2021) 3 volumes *Lindemann, Elizabeth B., Erich Lindemann: A Biographical Sketch (privately published, 1987) *Lindemann, Erich, Beyond Grief: Studies in Crisis Intervention (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1979)

External links

* David George Satin, M.D
Erich Lindemann: The Humanist and the Era of Community Mental Health
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 126, Number 4, Aug. 1982

Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 2003 * S. Fleck
Erich Lindemann 1900–1974
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Volume 10, Number 3, 153,
Erich Lindemann papers, 1885-1991 (inclusive), 1950-1974 (bulk). H MS c219. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
American psychiatrists German psychiatrists 1974 deaths Physicians of Massachusetts General Hospital 1900 births 20th-century American physicians German emigrants to the United States Harvard Medical School people {{US-psychiatrist-stub