American Psychosomatic Society Records, 1938 - 1991

Summary

Creator:
American Psychosomatic Society
Abstract:
This collection the records of the American Psychosomatic Society. The collection has 8 series: Psychosomatic Medicine Journal, Annual Meetings, Governance, Research Activities, Membership, Financial Operations, Printed Material, and Administrative Files.
Extent:
213 boxes 91.15 linear feet
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This is largely a collection of administrative files created by the Society, the vast majority of which were systematically filed by Joan Erpf, secretary and later executive assistant for the Society from as early as 1946 until her death in the mid 1980s. The majority of records document the administrative procedures by which the Society carried out its major functions, which traditionally have included membership operations, the publication of the journal, and the staging of an annual meeting.

There is documentation for the founding and early years of the Journal and Society; conference proceedings on topics in psychosomatic medicine discussed by the Society's research committees in the 1940s (eg., physiological mechanisms and animal experimentation, cutaneous and allied diseases, relation of mental illness to bodily ill health); correspondence and manuscript reviews reflecting procedures used by the Journal over several decades; early hand-written membership applications (for both accepted and rejected applicants) including those of founding members of the Society accompanied by membership recommendations; and correspondence and advertising proofs reflecting publishing, printing, and advertising procedures employed by the Journal. Early manuscript reviews written before the establishment of a formal review process are located in Record Group 1 in the Editors subgroup, often within the text of correspondence between editors. In the Journal's first years, its business management (including printing and advertising) was divided between the National Research Council and George Banta Publishing Co. After the 1940s, the Journal alternated between different companies for its printing and publishing needs, sometimes using a single company for both.

Materials most commonly found in the collection include carbon copy and original administrative correspondence among Society officers, editors, members, authors, publishers, and others; committee minutes and conference proceedings; election materials such as ballots, and slates; financial records such as invoices and accountant's reports; abstracts of articles and reviews or critiques of manuscripts submitted to the Journal; and printed materials, such as brochures or bulletins. Indices (e.g., for minutes, reports, and publications) have not been located in the collection. With a few exceptions, the collection does not contain manuscripts for articles or monographs, because, upon reviewing such materials, the Society returned them to authors. Likewise, the collection does not contain published monographs or print copies of the Journal. The Journal is available on microfilm. All records received from the Society have been retained, with the exception of duplicate materials. Following the request of the Library, even among records of a routine administrative nature (such as invoices, letters of transmittal, standard requests for information), weeding was not performed.

Biographical / historical:

In her 1994 publication Mind, Body, and Medicine: A History of the American Psychosomatic Society, author Dorothy Levenson presents a decade by decade history of the American Psychosomatic Society. The section below, based in part upon information in Levenson's book, summarizes early events in the establishment of the journal of "Psychosomatic Medicine" and later, the American Psychosomatic Society, and a 1994 brochure provides up-to-date information about the Society. The American Psychosomatic Society grew out of a desire among academicians, practitioners, and foundations to link developments in psychology and psychiatry to internal medicine, physiology, and other disciplines. In the United States, efforts to establish an organ that could address these developments date to the 1930s. In 1936, Kate Macy Ladd, philanthropist and founder of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, directed her foundation to provide financial support for the fledgling field of psychosomatic investigation. An initial project to assemble a bibliography of "psychosomatic" medical literature, examining the relationship of religion to health, was undertaken by the New York Academy of Medicine's Joint Committee on Religion and Medicine. The Committee, headed by Dr. Helen Flanders Dunbar, published a first volume in 1935 titled, "Emotions and Bodily Changes: A Survey of the Literature on Psychosomatic Interrelationships." According to R.C. Powell who devoted a PhD thesis to Dunbar, this work “quite literally launched the `American psychosomatic movement.” With further financial assistance from the Macy Foundation, a Committee on Problems of Neurotic Behavior, under the direction of the National Research Council's Division of Anthropology and Psychology, soon began publication of a journal entitled "Psychosomatic Medicine." Its goal was to encourage collaboration among the medical specialties, psychology, and the social sciences. Financed by the Macy Foundation, sponsored by the National Research Council, managed by an Editorial Board, and overseen by an Advisory Board of prominent doctors and scholars representing a range of disciplines, the Journal had complex beginnings. Its first four issues appeared in 1939 under the editorship of Dr. Dunbar. By 1942, in response to the Second World War, interest and research in the new field had expanded rapidly. Other than the Journal, however, no forum was available for the exchange of ideas and information. In response, in December of 1942, the Journal's Advisory Board voted into existence the "American Society for Research in Psychosomatic Problems." By 1943, subscriptions to the Journal had more than doubled, and in 1944, the National Research Council relinquished their control of the Journal to the new Society. In 1948, the Society changed its name to become the "American Psychosomatic Society."

Acquisition information:
Gift of the American Psychosomatic Society, 1995.

Access and use

Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions on this material.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from the Oskar Diethelm Library and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Location of this collection:
DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy and the Arts
Weill Cornell Medical College
525 East 68th Street, Box 140
New York, NY 10065, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
212-746-3728