COHEN 193United States–had published one of the early papers on the use of
chlorpromazine and reserpine in the treatment of psychotic patients.
He had been one of the organizers of a WHO conference that had
been attended by Morton Kramer, chief of the Biometrics Branch, who
brought back reports of the significant studies in European centers. Elkes
was invited to chair one of the sessions at our conference and was an
active participant in the proceedings of the meeting in September 1956.
Felix, Kety, and I had recently met with Winfred Overholser, super
intendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital, about the possibility of having
one of the wards assigned to us for studies that would complement and
extend those in which we were engaged at the NIH Clinical Center.
Overholser suggested that we take over the William A. White Building.
Felix enthusiastically seized the opportunity, and thus we were com
mitted to carrying out studies in an institution typical of those in which
perhaps 95 percent of psychotic patients were confined and treated.
As 1958 approached, the organizational phase of the clinical research
program neared completion. For several years I had been trying to bring
David A. Hamburg into the program. I had served as referee on a paper
he submitted to the journal Psychiatry in which Hamburg described the
organization and study of a ward for Army burn victims. It was thorough,
resourceful, and effective. David Rioch had visited the Army hospital,
had arranged for Hamburg’s transfer to his research program at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and had introduced him to the
staff at Chestnut Lodge. He was already committed to join Roy Grinker’s
program at Columbia Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in
Chicago and soon became his principal associate. Hamburg had ex
pressed an interest in the NIMH clinical program but felt he was not
prepared to make the move. As he climbed up the professional ladder,
he finally came to the NIMH in December 1957, as chief of the Adult
Psychiatry Branch after he finished a fellowship at the Center for Ad
vanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
In 1963, each NIH clinical director was asked to list ten significant
achievements from his institute’s program. The group of clinical direc
tors then selected one achievement from each program which was to be
presented at a meeting with President John F. Kennedy on the tenth