60 FARRERAS
As a result, he viewed the intramural research program’s division
into “clinical” versus “basic” research as misleading.^15 In contrast to the
assumption that the basic research program conducted “basic” research
(in laboratories) and the clinical research program conducted “applied”
research, Cohen highlighted the difference in terms of the level of
study. Specifically, he saw the basic and clinical research programs
as both conducting basic research in the sense of “gaining an under
standing of the fundamental processes involved in...development and
behavior,” whether this happened with animals in laboratories or pa
tients at the Clinical Center. The clinical research program, however,
concentrated “on processes which occur at the organismic level of
organization [rather than] at the level of organs, tissues, and cells,” as the
basic research program did.^16 By having a multidisciplinary group of
scientists studying patients at every level of the organization, Cohen
believed the study of social, psychological, genetic, and biological vari
ables would inevitably provide a more powerful theory of behavior than
was available at the time.^17
Clinical research required clinical facilities in which patients and
researchers could be accommodated. Rather than having each institute
build its own clinical center, Congress was persuaded that “several Insti
tutes could get research space at less cost per capita Institute” if adequate
appropriations were made for one large clinical center at the NIH.^18 The
National Mental Health Act had authorized $10 million toward such
a building, and the NCI, the NHI, and the NIMH were able to bene
fit from most of the clinical facilities provided by the Clinical Center
because of the $62 million that the three institutes were able to procure
toward the construction of the building. As the first $10 million was
mental health money, the NIMH was able to secure 150 beds distribu
ted across six wards, two on each of the first three floors of the Center,
which were very favorable locations.^19 It was not easy to recruit a direc
tor for the new Clinical Center, and Felix had to offer one of the 20
advanced grade positions he had requested in the Act to bring Jack
Masur to be its head.^20
In August 1953, the first clinical NIMH ward at the Clinical Center
was opened for the Child Research Branch.^21 This Branch focused on re
search on various therapies for hyperactive, aggressive, and pre-delinquent