Benjamin Spock

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Spock with his granddaughter Susannah in 1967

Benjamin McLane Spock (* 2. May 1903 in New Haven , Connecticut ; † 15. March 1998 in La Jolla , California ) was an American pediatrician and psychiatrist, the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud for the children's education has made applicable and popularized. His book Infant and Child Care , published in 1946, shaped the upbringing of baby boomers and has been sold more than 50 million times to date.

During his student days, Spock also emerged as a rower; at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 , he and his team won the gold medal in eighth place. In addition to his writing, medical and teaching activities, Spock was also politically active.

Life

Spock's father, Ives Spock, was a successful lawyer with Dutch ancestry; the mother, Mildred, was a housewife. Spock grew up with five younger siblings and in this way learned at a very early age what it means to live with infants and young children. After attending the Phillips Academy in Andover , a college preparatory private school, he began studying English literature at Yale University in 1921 , from which he graduated in 1925 with a bachelor's degree.

At Yale University, Spock did a lot of rowing . He also became a member of the Scroll and Key Society , a student association, whose membership he shared with many later greats from politics and business. In 1924 Spock became a member of the US national rowers team and rowed in the US eighth, with which he won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris that same year. Also on board was James Stillman Rockefeller , also a Scroll and Key member.

In 1927 Spock married Jane Cheney; there are two sons from the marriage. In the same year he moved to the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University , where he graduated with an MD degree in 1929. Lewis Fraad was one of his teachers. After an internship at the New York Presbyterian Hospital , he specialized in pediatrics in a small children's hospital in Manhattan. Because the psychological aspects of his work interested him more than the purely medical ones, he also worked as a psychiatrist . In 1933 Spock began teaching pediatrics at Cornell University Medical College in addition to his pediatric practice , and was also a consultant on child psychiatry for the New York City Health Department. From 1944 to 1946 he served as a military doctor in the Navy.

After working for the Mayo Clinic in 1947 , Spock was appointed professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 1951 ; from 1955 to 1967 he taught at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. During this time his political engagement began, the background of which was always Spock's concern for the interests of children. In 1962 he was z. B. Co-chair of SANE, an organization that campaigned against atomic bomb tests . In 1968 he was on trial with other protesters because he had called for people to refuse military service during the Vietnam War .

Since 1967, Spock was officially retired as a medic, but remained very present in public life. So he embarked on a political career. In the presidential election of 1972 he was nominated for the office of president by the short-lived People's Party . With his running mate for the vice presidency , Julius Hobson , he achieved 78,751 votes, which meant a share of 0.1 percent and fourth place.

In 1976, Spock divorced his first wife and married Mary Morgan, with whom he had been linked since 1970. In the presidential election that took place in the same year , he ran alongside Margaret Wright as the People's Party candidate for the vice presidency. They received 49,024 votes (0.06 percent) and came ninth. In 1980 he finally applied unsuccessfully for nomination as a presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party .

Spock died at the age of 94 in his home in San Diego .

Publications

  • The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care . 1st edition. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York 1946. From 1957: Baby and Child Care ; from 1985 on: Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care
German: Your child - your happiness . Niggli and sales, Teufen, St. Gallen, Bregenz, Vienna 1952. afterwards: infant and child care . German book club, 1957.
  • Dr. Spock Talks With Mothers . Growth and Guidance. Fawcett Crest Books, 1961.
German: Big hand guides little hand . The child and its way into life. Ullstein, 1963.
  • On Being the Parent of a Handicapped Child . National Society for Crippled Children and Adults, 1961. Reprint of two articles, the regular in Spock's column in Ladies Home Journal published
German: You and your disabled child . Ullstein, 1973, ISBN 3-550-17770-4 .
German: Consultation hours for parents . A thousand pieces of advice on education. Ullstein, 1964.
  • Decent and Indecent . Our Personal and Political Behavior. 1st edition. Bodley Head, 1970, ISBN 0-370-01334-4 .
German: invitation to object . Plea for a new moral. Ullstein, 1970.
  • Bringing Up Children in a Difficult Time . New English Library, 1977, ISBN 0-450-03088-1 . Alternative title: Raising Children in a Difficult Time
German: parents . Perspectives in difficult times. 4th edition. Otto Maier, 1993, ISBN 3-473-42371-8 .

literature

Unless otherwise stated, all book titles are in English

  • Lynn Z. Bloom: Dr. Spock . Biography of a Conservative Radical. 2nd Edition. Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.
  • Michael S. Foley (Ed.): Dear Dr. Spock . Letters about the Vietnam War to America's Favorite Baby Doctor. NYU Press, 2007, ISBN 0-8147-2744-1 .
  • J. Leonard Kaye: Life of Benjamin Spock . 1st edition. 21st Century, 1997, ISBN 0-8050-2301-1 .
  • Thomas Maier: Dr. Spock . American Life. Basic Books, 2003, ISBN 0-465-04315-1 .
  • Jessica Mitford: The Trial of Dr. Spock . 1st edition. Random House, 1969, ISBN 0-394-44952-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benjamin Spock (1903-1998) ; Gengle Ben , People, March 30, 1998
  2. ↑ Jane C. Spock, 82; Worked on Baby Book
  3. ↑ Dr. Lewis Fraad, 83, pediatrics professor; Advised Dr. Spock New York Times, December 5, 1990
  4. ↑ a b c Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: Benjamin Spock
  5. ↑ On this and on Mary Morgan in general: Parents take parenting far too seriously , spiked-online, July 20, 2007 (accessed January 10, 2016)
  6. ↑ www.ourcampaigns.com: Benjamin Spock
personal data
SURNAME Spock, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spock, Benjamin McLane (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pediatrician
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH New Haven , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1998
Place of death La Jolla , California