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open- and fair-minded, and had a facilitative personality which brought
out the best in all who dealt with him.
There were other leaders of course, who were extremely helpful. All
of us deeply respected Seymour S. Kety in this context. So, too, Joel
Elkes. David Shakow and John Clausen were wonderful leaders in this
group. Moreover, we had Louis Sokoloff, the great Julius Axelrod,
Melvin Kohn, Allan F. Mirsky, Mortimer Mishkin, Marian Yarrow,
Lyman Wynne, Robert H. Felix, Irving Kopin, Sheppard Kellam, Morris
B. Parloff, William Pollin, Eric Kandel, and others. I am not only noting
those who worked directly with me but, rather, those in other labora
tories from whom I learned a great deal. We had a strong mutual aid ethic
among the various laboratories. Several of the factors then that contri
buted to the generative and creative research of that era were: (1) visionary
leadership; (2) superb facilities and support; (3) the close proximity of
basic and clinical research; (4) brilliant young people; and (5) a mutual
aid ethic.
I recall vividly how much we taught each other. I emphasize especial
ly the leaders who brought extraordinary intellectual, technical, and
organizational strength to bear on important and difficult problems that
we wanted to address. It was all done in a great spirit of encouragement
and cooperation. It is no wonder that we all feel the deepest appreciation
to the people of the intramural program in the 1950s.
For psychiatry, it is not too much to say that the various research units
of the NIMH intramural program laid the foundation for modern re
search on psychiatric problems, not only through the studies conduct
ed at the NIH, but by the many brilliant young people who went on
to positions of leadership in psychiatry and related fields of biobehav
ioral science.
Let me offer a few examples from my own experience as chief of
the Adult Psychiatry Branch in the hope of illustrating some of the zest,
vitality, and promise as well as the ongoing, long-term vision of the
work at NIMH in that truly seminal era. No doubt other and better
examples could be provided, but these are the ones I happen to know
best. And even within these it is overly selective, but it has to be.
First, the area of stress and hormones was very new at that time and
has gone on to be one of the major arenas of psychiatric research in the