Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

ELKES 215

Appendix

In 1955, I was invited by Cohen and Kety to assume the directorship of the
NIMH Branch known at the time as the Psychosomatic Medicine Branch.
Because of the generosity and support I had encountered in England from
the University of Birmingham and the Medical Research Council I decided
to stay in England.
In 1957, Cohen and Kety renewed their offer. My acceptance resulted in the
creation of the Clinical Neuropharmacology Research Center at the William
A. White Building of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. The
Center was later renamed the Division of Special Mental Health Programs of
the NIMH and continued under the successive, dynamic leadership of Drs.
Gian Carlo Salmoiraghi, Floyd Bloom, Ermino Costa, and Richard Wyatt, all of
whom, in their subsequent, remarkable careers, made deep and lasting contri­
butions to the neurosciences and psychopharmacology. At the closing of the
Center, with the return of its activities to the intramural program in Bethesda,
Maryland, I wrote the following letter to Dr. Wyatt^31 :

October 19, 1999



Dear Friends,



I am sorry I cannot be with you this evening; but my greetings and

good wishes go to our beloved Richard Wyatt and to you from a full

and grateful heart. I treasure my good fortune to have known some of

you in person and others by their writings; and ask myself “How lucky

can a person be?” How often does life bestow such riches of memories

or joyous celebration of shared common work? Moments and faces

spring to life as I write. I remember one such moment.

It was a fragrant crisp spring morning in, I believe, April of 1957.

I had driven to Bethesda passing the cherry blossoms and suddenly

found myself standing in front of the imposing facade of the William

A. White building at St. Elizabeths. This was to be our new Center.

Seymour Kety had sent me the plans of the building to England and

sitting in my office in Birmingham, I had roughed out the general lay­

out: Animal laboratories in the Basement; Human laboratories and

offices on the fifth floor, and patients in between and all around us.

But, the core question that morning was not the layout or even (in

those halcyon days) the budget. It was simply this: “How do we do

justice in this building to the unique qualities, the uniquely transdis­

ciplinary nature of our field?” How do we further conversation between

lab and lab and lab and clinic. How do we enhance team work? and

how, in the fullness of time, do we put a team into a single head? I readily