Jerome Frank, a giant in the field of psychotherapy
research and an integral member of the Johns Hopkins
community throughout his academic career, died March 14 at
the age of 95. A memorial service hosted by the School of
Medicine's
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences has been planned for 4 p.m. on Monday, May 2,
in Hurd Hall of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. A reception
will follow in the Phipps Lobby.
A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University,
Frank earned his doctorate from its Psychology Department
in 1934 and graduated from its medical school cum laude in
1939. In 1940, he joined the Department of Psychiatry at
Johns Hopkins' School of Medicine, where he was first
considered an outstanding student of Adolf Meyer, and later
an outstanding teacher.
Frank's work came at a time when psychiatry was in
tremendous disarray, suffering from struggles for power and
dominance between competing psychoanalytical and
psychotherapeutic points of view.
As a clinician scholar, Frank strove to scientifically
study the psychotherapeutic methods, tenets and claims and
to synthesize a coherent "comparative anatomy" of the
various approaches. His book Persuasion and Healing
— which describes the claims of psychodynamic
psychotherapy and integrates the research in the field
through the 1960s — is probably the most influential
book of its kind. More importantly, his work synthesized
both the types of patients and types of approaches that
every student of psychotherapy must know and understand.
Frank's work had a profound impact on the field in two
important ways. The first was that it helped heal the
schisms that had developed between various academic
centers, thereby allowing improved conversations and
forward movement in the field.
The second accomplishment was that it liberalized
thinking about psychotherapeutic treatment and allowed the
orthodox psychoanalytical community to foster the
development of new types of psychotherapy, including the
self-psychology movement. This resulted in the development
of many new conceptions about psychotherapy, including
family therapy, supportive therapy and subspecialty types
of psychotherapy. The impact of Persuasion and
Healing on the field of psychiatry reflects Frank
himself, as it gently persuades the reader to reconsider
nearly every assumption and idea in a clearer and more
scientific light. The book, now in the third edition, feels
in no way dated; the first edition still seems
revolutionary.
Committed to the concept of physicians having an
important social responsibility for the greater good of
society, Frank was instrumental in the founding of
Physicians for Social Responsibility and was an active
crusader against nuclear armaments, for human rights and
for a humanistic approach to medicine.
Frank was a passionate teacher and mentor who gave
generations of students gentle but steady encouragement
that helped them develop successful and productive careers.
After retiring, he continued on as an active emeritus
professor who was heavily involved in the supervision and
teaching of residents and young faculty. A recipient of
many awards himself, Frank was often remembered by his
students when receiving their own awards. When Irvin Yalom
received the prestigious Oscar Pfister prize from the
American Psychiatric Association, for example, he opened
his remarks by thanking his mentor, Jerome Frank, who had
been the first recipient of the Oscar Pfister award.
Frank is survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth
"Liza" Kleeman, whom he married in 1948, four children and
six grandchildren. His daughter Emily is associate dean of
student affairs at the Peabody Conservatory. His son,
David, teaches at the Roxbury Latin School in Boston. His
daughter Deborah is a professor of pediatrics at Boston
University, and his daughter Julia is an associate
professor of psychiatry at George Washington University and
the co-author of the third edition of Persuasion and
Healing.