Hyman Spotnitz

Hyman Spotnitz (born September 29, 1908 in Boston , Massachusetts , † April 18, 2008 ) was an American psychoanalyst , psychiatrist and psychiatry researcher, who is considered a pioneer of analytical work with schizophrenics . In the 1950s he developed what is known as modern psychoanalysis . He was also one of the pioneers in group psychotherapy .

Life stations

Born in Boston, the oldest of five children of an immigrant family, he grew up in the North End of Boston, attended public schools and graduated from Harvard College . In 1934 he completed his medical studies at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . He continued his medical training at Columbia University in New York and received a medical science degree in neurology in 1939 . His qualification was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1941 . He was able to do his first work on schizophrenia while working as a psychiatrist for the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York City. At the time, most psychoanalysts thought that schizophrenia was untreatable and incurable. Also was group psychotherapy not popular in the thirties. Spotnitz's approach was considered controversial, so he left the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and developed his own theory.

Hyman Spotnitz married Miriam Berkman , whom he had known since childhood. His wife died in 1977 and the couple had three sons.

Publications

• Measuring studies over the visual distance. Berlin, Med. Diss. 1934
• The Couch and The Circle: A Story of Group Psychotherapy , Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1961, ISBN 978-0-9703923-6-7
• Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient: Theory of The Technique , Grune & Stratton 1969, YBK Publishers 2004, ISBN 0-9703923-6-2
• Treatment of the Narcissistic Neuroses , together with Phyllis W. Meadow, Jason Aronson, 1976, 1995, ISBN 978-1-56821-416-0
• Psychotherapy of Preoedipal Conditions: Schizophrenia and Severe Character Disorders , Jason Aronson, 1976, 1995, ISBN 978-1-56821-633-1
• Just Say Everything: A Festschrift in Honor of Hyman Spotnitz , by Sara Sheftel, Assn for Modern Psychoanalysis, 1991, ISBN 978-0-9624534-0-3

Web links

• Literature by and about Hyman Spotnitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Schizophrenia, Alcoholism and Addiction Interviews with Dr. Hyman Spotnitz (PDF file; 1.62 MB)
• Lou Ormont's Homepage Description of Ormont's methodology based on Spotnitz's theories