Elvin Morton Jellinek

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Elvin Morton Jellinek (born August 15, 1890 in New York City , New York , † October 22, 1963 in Stanford , California ) was an American physiologist and researcher into alcoholism .

Live and act

Jellinek studied biostatistics and physiology at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 1908 to 1910 , then philosophy , philology , anthropology and theology at the University of Joseph Fourier in Grenoble . From November 1911 to December 1914 he was enrolled at the University of Leipzig .

After his stay in Europe , Jellinek carried out biometric research in Sierra Leone , Tela (Honduras) and at Worcester Street Hospital in Boston . Only then did he devote himself to the study of alcoholism and researched from 1941 to 1952 as an associate professor at Yale University . He then worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva . From 1958 he continued his research, first in Canada , then at Stanford University .

Jellinek confirmed the disease character of alcoholism . The classification of people with alcohol problems according to five categories from alpha to epsilon, which is still known today, goes back to him. He described the drinking behavior of so-called alpha and beta drinkers as the preliminary stage of alcoholism, and he described gamma, delta and epsilon drinkers as alcoholic. In addition, Jellinek developed the questionnaire named after him, in which you can judge by self-assessment whether you are alcoholic and how far the disease has progressed.

In 1938 Jellinek was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

The Jellinek Memorial Award has been presented in his honor since 1968 for outstanding research on alcoholic disease.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs
  • Alcohol Explored . Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY 1942 (with Howard W. Haggard).
  • (Ed.): Alcohol Addiction and Chronic Alcoholism (Effects of alcohol on the individual; 1). Yale University Press, New Haven, NY 1942.
  • The Disease Concept of Alcoholism . 7th ed. University Press, New Haven, Conn. 1983, ISBN 0-910724-12-1 .
Essays
  • Clinical Tests on Comparative Effectiveness of Analgesic Drugs . In: Biometrics Bulletin. Journal of the IBS , Vol. 2 (1946), Issue 5, pp. 87-91, ISSN  0099-4987 .
  • Phases in the Drinking History of Alcoholics. Analysis of a Survey Conducted by the Official Organ of Alcoholics Anonymous . In: Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol , Vol. 7 (1946), pp. 1-88, ISSN  0033-5649 .
  • An outline of basic policies for a research program on problems of alcohol . In: Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol , Vol. 3 (1942), pp. 104-124, ISSN  0033-5649 .

literature

  • H. David Archibald: Dr. Elwin [sic] Morton Jellinek: (1891-1964) . In: American Journal of Psychiatry , Vol. 120 (1964), pp. 1217-1218, ISSN  0002-953X ( obituary ).
  • Robert E. Popham (Ed.): Alcohol & alcoholism. Papers presented at the International Symposium in memory of EM Jellinek. Santiago, Chile, August 1966 . University Press, Toronto 1970.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There are contradicting statements about Jellinek's academic degree. The obituary of the American Journal Of Psychiatry says that he received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1935. There is no trace of this in the archives of the University of Leipzig. Ron Roizen (University of California) describes Jellinek in the lecture: EM Jellinek and All That! as a charlatan and lovable fraudster without a university degree who made his own doctorate. The American Journal Of Psychiatry's obituary also states that Jellinek was particularly proud of an honorary doctorate from the University of Chile .
  2. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1900-1949 ( PDF ). Retrieved September 27, 2015
  3. ^ List of the Jellinek Memorial Award winners
personal data
SURNAME Jellinek, Elvin Morton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physician and alcohol disease researcher
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1963
Place of death Stanford , California , United States