Tag Archives: John Burnham

On the Passing of John Burnham

@APA 2009, a picture of “The Three JHBS Amigos,” as affectionately called by Chris Green. In addition to Raymond Fancher and John Burnham, their wives, Marjorie Burnham and Helena Fancher.

We’ve received sad notice that John Chynoweth Burnham passed away on May 12, 2017. With a doctorate in history from Stanford and a position at Ohio State from the early 60s through 2002 (and associations with numerous other institutions and organizations), Burnham was “a historian’s historian.” As a prolific author and editor, his historiographic interests varied broadly and were influential in a number of fields, but to us he is best known for his pioneering work in the history of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and American health care. He served as president of the American Association for the History of Medicine from 1990-2, as editor of the Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences from 1997-2000, and received Division 26’s Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other honours and awards throughout his career.

Read his full obituary here. A partial list of his full length publications can be found here.

New Book: After Freud Left

A new edited collection on the history of Freud in the United States, and the development of psychoanalysis in the country following his 1909 visit to Clark University, has just been released. After Freud Left: A Century of Psychoanalysis in America is edited by John Burnham and includes chapters from a number of prominent historians of psychoanalysis. The book is described as follows and includes the following chapters,

From August 29 to September 21, 1909, Sigmund Freud visited the United States, where he gave five lectures at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. This volume brings together a stunning gallery of leading historians of psychoanalysis and of American culture to consider the broad history of psychoanalysis in America and to reflect on what has happened to Freud’s legacy in the United States in the century since his visit.

There has been a flood of recent scholarship on Freud’s life and on the European and world history of psychoanalysis, but historians have produced relatively little on the proliferation of psychoanalytic thinking in the United States, where Freud’s work had monumental intellectual and social impact. The essays in After Freud Left provide readers with insights and perspectives to help them understand the uniqueness of Americans’ psychoanalytic thinking, as well as the forms in which the legacy of Freud remains active in the United States in the twenty-first century. After Freud Left will be essential reading for anyone interested in twentieth-century American history, general intellectual and cultural history, and psychology and psychiatry.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I: 1909 to the 1940s: Freud and the Psychoanalytic Movement Cross the Atlantic

Introduction to Part I: Transnationalizing

Sonu Shamdasani
Psychotherapy, 1909: Notes on a Vintage Continue reading New Book: After Freud Left