Biographical Note: Arthur Valenstein was born in New York City on January 15, 1914. He completed his graduate studies at Cornell Medical College in 1938. His doctoral training included a psychiatry residency at Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston and a neurology residency at Bellevue Hospital, in New York. He became Senior Physician In Psychiatry at MMH in 1942. He served in the US Army Medical Corps, transporting patients from the Southwest Pacific to the US. Stationed in Taos, NM, he married his first wife Adelaide Ross. His second wife was Katrina Burlingham, the daughter of Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham, and a lifelong associate of Anna Freud. He completed his psychoanalytic training at the BPSI in 1946-51, and soon became a training and supervising analyst. A member of the psychiatric departments of both the Beth Israel Hospital, under Dr. Grete L Bibring, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital under Dr. Henry M Fox, Dr. Valenstein contributed to a collaborative study of normal pregnancy and participated in long-term psycho-physiological observations on healthy college-age twins. On the faculty of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, he taught theoretical seminars and took part of many committees, locally and in the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Valenstein became president of the BPSI in 1974, during the stormy controversies over the split between PINE and BPSI. During a busy professional life, he wrote over 30 articles and book-chapters between 1948 and 1984. In retirement he continued to conduct workshops and study-groups on the nature of the psycho-therapeutic process. He died after a brief illness on January 17, 2012, age 98.
Summary: This collection is divided into five series, with dates ranging from 1940-2010:
- Series 1: Personal Papers (1942-1997)
- Series 2: Psychoanalytic Organizations (1949-2002)
- Series 3: Seminars and Conferences (1950-1994)
- Series 4: Manuscripts/Psychoanalytic Papers (1942-2002)
- Series 5: Hampstead Clinic and Anna Freud (1954-1990)
The portraits of Arthur Valenstein and his wife could be found in the BPSI Photograph Collection, Port III, 33, 35. The BPSI Audio Archive also holds panel discussions and scientific meetings of 1969-1970 that include Dr. Valenstein’s presentations (see Audiovisual Materials, RR 133, 156). American Psychoanalytic Association Records, 1930-2010, contains one letter Arthur Valenstein regarding the Buckley amendment.
Finding Aid for this collection is available here (viewing it requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).
Related BPSI Collections
Audiovisual Materials
BPSI History Collections: Scientific Meetings
BPSI Photograph Collection
Related Sites
The Face of Experience: Arthur Valenstein
Mary S. Sigourney Awards of 2000 (from Psychiatric Times)
