Stephen Fleck
Encyclopedia
Stephen Fleck was a professor in the Psychiatry
http://www.med.yale.edu/psych/ and Epidemiology
and Public Health
http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/academics/epidemiology.html Departments at the Yale University
School of Medicine
http://www.med.yale.edu/ysm/ from 1953 to 1983 and professor emeritus from 1983 until his death.
He had an early effect on the direction that American psychiatry
took during the mid- to late-twentieth century. With Theodore Lidz
and Alice Cornelison, he was a co-author of the seminal book Schizophrenia and the Familyhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/082366001X (1965), a significant influence on the modern psychiatric thought and practice regarding the origins and treatments of schizophrenia
.
, Germany
, to Georg and Anna Fleck, he was a young medical student in 1933 when a professor warned him and several other Jewish students that there were Nazi warrants out for their arrests. Fleck and most of his immediate family fled Hitler's Germany
, first to The Netherlands and then, in 1935, to Boston
, Massachusetts
, where he became a U.S. citizen.
He finished medical school at Harvard
, where he was a graduate assistant to John Rock
while Rock was performing the preliminary research that led to the invention of the first birth control pill . This helped to spark Fleck's lifelong interest in contraception
and family planning
issues.
, where he was involved in treating a diphtheria
epidemic that spread quickly among the prisoners. Among the Nazi prisoners were a number of Rommel Corps
soldiers, some of whom, even while incarcerated in west central Alabama, attempted to assassinate other Nazis they saw as having been disloyal to the Third Reich. Since Fleck kept his national origin and fluency in German
secret from the prisoners, he was able to prevent some of these plotted murders.
He was subsequently shipped to the European Theater
, and first posted in England in Army camp hospitals. Just before D-Day, Fleck was posted to Bournemouth
, England
, to await transport over the channel with the medical (ambulance) corps. While in Bournemouth, he met Louise Harlan, an American Red Cross
volunteer. Fleck stayed with ambulance corps attached to the 72nd and 76th divisions as they moved through Belgium
. He was present at the Battle of the Bulge
and afterward was briefly in charge of the medical needs of some 30,000 captured German soldiers. Subsequently, he was involved in interrogating POWs and evacuating and treating concentration camp
prisoners; he also traveled to several camps to search for records or other signs of surviving friends and extended family.
at Johns Hopkins Hospital
in Baltimore
, Maryland
, where he first met his lifelong colleague Theodore Lidz
. He had a faculty position at the University of Washington School of Medicine
from 1949 until 1953, when Lidz invited Fleck to join him at the Yale School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry
.
to a specialty incorporating social-scientific methodology, medical, behavioral
, neurological
and public-health factors, and especially familial considerations." They focused their long-term research on schizophrenic patients and their families, culminating in the 1966 publication of the ground-breaking Schizophrenia and the Family, for which Lidz, Fleck and Cornelison won the 1985 American Family Therapy Academy "Pioneering Contribution to Family Therapy" award. In addition to his research, professorial, and supervisory roles at the school of medicine, Fleck was also chief psychiatrist at both the Yale Psychiatric Institute and the Connecticut Mental Health Center.http://www.med.yale.edu/psych/clinical_care/mental_health.html
Fleck officially retired from Yale in 1983 but continued to publish and to consult on colleagues' cases until a few months before his 2002 death. The Stephen Fleck Clinician and Teacher Awardhttp://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=2800http://bms.brown.edu/DPHB/faculty/facultypage?id=1100924967 http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=3208http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DA163AF93BA25752C0A96E9C8B63 at the Yale School of Medicine is named in his honor.
decision Griswold v. Connecticut
. Louise Fleck had grown up in Nome, Alaska
among other places, and had traveled and worked internationally before and after the war
receiving a BA (honors) in Spanish from the University of Washington
. In New Haven, she became active in public school issues, and acquired an MAT-Reading. She tutored many illiterate adults, generally without fee. She and Stephen were married for almost 50 years until her death in 1992.
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
http://www.med.yale.edu/psych/ and Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
and Public Health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/academics/epidemiology.html Departments at the Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
School of Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
The Yale School of Medicine at Yale University is a private medical school located in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. It was founded in 1810 as The Medical Institution of Yale College, and formally opened its doors in 1813....
http://www.med.yale.edu/ysm/ from 1953 to 1983 and professor emeritus from 1983 until his death.
He had an early effect on the direction that American psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
took during the mid- to late-twentieth century. With Theodore Lidz
Theodore Lidz
Theodore Lidz was an American psychiatrist best known for his articles and books on the causes of schizophrenia and on psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients...
and Alice Cornelison, he was a co-author of the seminal book Schizophrenia and the Familyhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/082366001X (1965), a significant influence on the modern psychiatric thought and practice regarding the origins and treatments of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
.
Early life
One of four sons and one daughter born in FrankfurtFrankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, to Georg and Anna Fleck, he was a young medical student in 1933 when a professor warned him and several other Jewish students that there were Nazi warrants out for their arrests. Fleck and most of his immediate family fled Hitler's Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, first to The Netherlands and then, in 1935, to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, where he became a U.S. citizen.
He finished medical school at Harvard
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
, where he was a graduate assistant to John Rock
John Rock (American scientist)
John Rock was an American obstetrician and gynecologist. He is best known for the major role he played in the development of the first hormonal contraceptive, colloquially called "the pill".-Early life and career:...
while Rock was performing the preliminary research that led to the invention of the first birth control pill . This helped to spark Fleck's lifelong interest in contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
and family planning
Family planning
Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...
issues.
Military service
In 1941, Fleck enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He was first stationed as a medical officer at the U.S. Army Prisoner of War Camp at Aliceville, AlabamaAliceville, Alabama
Aliceville is a city in Pickens County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 2,567. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 2,465. -Geography:...
, where he was involved in treating a diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
epidemic that spread quickly among the prisoners. Among the Nazi prisoners were a number of Rommel Corps
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
soldiers, some of whom, even while incarcerated in west central Alabama, attempted to assassinate other Nazis they saw as having been disloyal to the Third Reich. Since Fleck kept his national origin and fluency in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
secret from the prisoners, he was able to prevent some of these plotted murders.
He was subsequently shipped to the European Theater
European Theater of Operations
The European Theater of Operations, United States Army was a United States Army formation which directed U.S. Army operations in parts of Europe from 1942 to 1945. It referred to Army Ground Forces, United States Army Air Forces, and Army Service Forces operations north of Italy and the...
, and first posted in England in Army camp hospitals. Just before D-Day, Fleck was posted to Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, to await transport over the channel with the medical (ambulance) corps. While in Bournemouth, he met Louise Harlan, an American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
volunteer. Fleck stayed with ambulance corps attached to the 72nd and 76th divisions as they moved through Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. He was present at the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
and afterward was briefly in charge of the medical needs of some 30,000 captured German soldiers. Subsequently, he was involved in interrogating POWs and evacuating and treating concentration camp
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
prisoners; he also traveled to several camps to search for records or other signs of surviving friends and extended family.
Early Medical career
Fleck and Harlan were shipped home in August and September 1945; they were married on October 13, 1945. Fleck did his psychiatric residencyResidency (medicine)
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...
at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland . It was founded using money from a bequest by philanthropist Johns Hopkins...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, where he first met his lifelong colleague Theodore Lidz
Theodore Lidz
Theodore Lidz was an American psychiatrist best known for his articles and books on the causes of schizophrenia and on psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients...
. He had a faculty position at the University of Washington School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
The University of Washington School of Medicine is a public medical school located in Seattle, Washington.-Overview:UWSOM is a graduate school affiliated with the University of Washington, and is the only medical school in the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho...
from 1949 until 1953, when Lidz invited Fleck to join him at the Yale School of Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
The Yale School of Medicine at Yale University is a private medical school located in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. It was founded in 1810 as The Medical Institution of Yale College, and formally opened its doors in 1813....
Department of Psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
.
Career at Yale
Fleck and Lidz "worked from the late 1940s on to change the direction of psychiatry from the purely psychoanalyticPsychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
to a specialty incorporating social-scientific methodology, medical, behavioral
Behaviorism
Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...
, neurological
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
and public-health factors, and especially familial considerations." They focused their long-term research on schizophrenic patients and their families, culminating in the 1966 publication of the ground-breaking Schizophrenia and the Family, for which Lidz, Fleck and Cornelison won the 1985 American Family Therapy Academy "Pioneering Contribution to Family Therapy" award. In addition to his research, professorial, and supervisory roles at the school of medicine, Fleck was also chief psychiatrist at both the Yale Psychiatric Institute and the Connecticut Mental Health Center.http://www.med.yale.edu/psych/clinical_care/mental_health.html
Fleck officially retired from Yale in 1983 but continued to publish and to consult on colleagues' cases until a few months before his 2002 death. The Stephen Fleck Clinician and Teacher Awardhttp://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=2800http://bms.brown.edu/DPHB/faculty/facultypage?id=1100924967 http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=3208http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DA163AF93BA25752C0A96E9C8B63 at the Yale School of Medicine is named in his honor.
Personal life
The Flecks had three children in quick succession: Anna Lou (b. 1947), Stephen Harlanhttp://www.csulb.edu/depts/urad/papubs/experts/people/sfleck.html (b. 1948), and Carra Ruth (b. 1949). Together, the Flecks were campaigners for legalized birth control and abortion, participating in the activism that led to the landmark 1965 Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decision Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut, , was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Constitution protected a right to privacy. The case involved a Connecticut law that prohibited the use of contraceptives...
. Louise Fleck had grown up in Nome, Alaska
Nome, Alaska
Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
among other places, and had traveled and worked internationally before and after the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
receiving a BA (honors) in Spanish from the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. In New Haven, she became active in public school issues, and acquired an MAT-Reading. She tutored many illiterate adults, generally without fee. She and Stephen were married for almost 50 years until her death in 1992.
Partial List of Fleck's Published Works
- Fleck, Stephen, et al. "Diphtheria Among German Prisoners of War" Bull. U. S. Army M. Dept. No. 74, 80-89. March 1944.
- Fleck, Stephen, "Role of the Public Health Nurse in Mental Health—Part I: Nurses' Training in Mental Health Aspects of Public Health Field Work" American Journal of Public Health Nations Health. 1956 June; 46(6): 748–754. Accessed April 26, 2007.
- Lidz, Theodore, Alice Cornelison, Stephen Fleck and Dorothy Terry: “The interfamilial environment of the schizophrenic patient I: The father”, Psychiatry, Vol. 20, 1957, pp. 329–342.
- Lidz, Theodore, Stephen Fleck & Alice Cornelison, Schizophrenia and the Family (International Universities Press, 1965)http://www.amazon.com/dp/082366001X
- Fleck. M.D., Stephen. "'Interracial Riots' in School and Community Indifference" The School Review (The University of Chicago Press, 1971)http://www.jstor.org/view/00366773/ap030693/03a00090/0?frame=noframe&userID=82a07ac8@ua.edu/01cc99331600501bd4117&dpi=3&config=jstor
- Strauss, John S., Malcolm Bowers, T. Wayne Downey, Stephen Fleck, Stanley Jackson, and Ira Levine, ed.s, The Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia (Plenum, 1980).
- Pruett, Kyle DeanKyle PruettDr. Kyle D. Pruett M.D. is an author of books and columns on parenting, and is a professor of Child Psychiatry at Yale University. This researcher and practicing psychiatrist was the host of the TV series Your Child Six to Twelve with Dr. Kyle Pruett. He has contributed to Good Housekeeping, Child,...
and Stephen Fleck, “Familial Developmental Lines: Anna Freud's Concept of Developmental Lines and Family Dynamics,” American Academy of Child Psychiatry Annual Meeting, 1984, Toronto, Canada.
- Fleck, M.D., Stephen, review of The Art of Psychotherapy: Case Studies From the Family Therapy Networker edited by Richard Simon, et al. (New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1999); in The American Journal of Psychiatry 157:846, May 2000. Accessed April 26, 2007.
External links
- Wall, Randy. "Inside the Wire: Aliceville and the Afrika Korps," Alabama Heritage Magazine (Winter 1988, No. 7). Accessed December 3, 2008
- Fleischman, Ronald. Review of Schizophrenia and the Family by Lidz, Fleck, and Cornelison. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 57:440-443 (1988). Accessed April 26, 2007
- Geraki, Stefania Palmyra. "In Memoriam: Psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Fleck" Yale Scientific (Spring 2003: Issue 76.3, Article 188). Accessed April 26, 2007.
- Peart, Karen N. "In Memoriam: Influential Yale Psychiatrist Stephen Fleck, who Worked to Help Legalize Birth Control in the State" Yale News Release, January 24, 2003. Accessed April 26, 2007.
- Robbins, Lewis L. Review of Schizophrenia and the Family by Lidz, Fleck, and Cornelison. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 36:604-605 (1967). Accessed April 26, 2007.
- Silver, M.D., Ann-Louise S. "Stephen Fleck, 1912-2002" A Stephen Fleck memorial page at the website for The International Society for the Psychological Treatments of the Schizophrenias and other Psychoses. Accessed April 26, 2007.
- "Dr. Stephen Fleck, Noted for Research on Schizophrenia, Dies" Yale Bulletin & Calendar (January 31, 2003: Vol. 31, No. 16). Accessed April 26, 2007.