Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

LABORATORY AND BRANCH RESEARCH REVIEWS 83

research data on children who no longer needed hospital ward treatment
but who were not ready to return to community life; 2) to explore the
therapeutic milieu, including the social structure and staff roles, and
compare it to the most conducive aspects of the closed ward treatment
environment; and 3) to develop concepts and methods for the observation,
description, and categorization of the children’s transition or improvement
from a state of pathology to one of mental health.^8
The Child Research Branch, however, perhaps because it was created
around one man, was short-lived. Redl did not feel that Felix was supportive
of his work and in June 1958 returned to Wayne State University.^9 Joseph
D. Noshpitz became acting chief of the branch, which was terminat­
ed in July 1959. The children receiving treatment were discharged or
transferred to other institutions and the research staff stayed on until
June 1960 in order to finalize writing up any data that had been collected
in the various studies.^10

Notes

1. Originally named Children’s Services but, by 1954, renamed the Child
   Research Branch. For more information on this branch, see Cohen’s chap­
   ter, this volume, Richard Littmann’s paper on the ONH website, and the
   Child Research Branch review for further information and Appendices B
   and C for lists of all branch members and selected landmark papers.


2. Robert A. Cohen, oral history interviews by Ingrid G. Farreras, January 18,
   23, and 29, 2002, transcript, ONH.


3. Cohen, NIMH Annual Reports, 1953 and 1954.


4. Cohen, NIMH Annual Report, 1954, 1.


5. Cohen, NIMH Annual Report, 1953.


6. Cohen, NIMH Annual Report, 1956.


7. Cohen, NIMH Annual Report, 1955.


8. Fritz Redl, NIMH Annual Report, 1957.


9. Cohen, personal communications, December 10, 2003 and January 20, 2004.


10. Joseph D. Noshpitz, NIMH Annual Report, 1959. During the fiscal year of
    1960, a reorganized Child Research Branch was initiated under the acting
    directorship of D. Wells Goodrich. The aim of this new branch was to
    develop a “systematic longitudinal program of interlocking projects to
    explore the initial stages of family formation in volunteer subjects.”
    (D. Wells Goodrich, NIMH Annual Report, 1960, 29). Toward this
    goal, three areas were explored: 1) the development of behavior in the
    firstborn infant from birth to 2^1 / 2 years of age; 2) the marital bond
    development, from newly wed to parenthood, of different types of couples;