HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 61children and Cohen recruited Fritz Redl to be its chief. In 1955 these
children were moved from the Clinical Center to a Children’s Treatment
Residence specifically constructed for them on campus. In 1958, Redl
left the NIMH and the branch shifted its interests to studying the initial
stages of family formation.
Cohen offered David Shakow the position of chief of a joint (basic
clinical) Laboratory of Psychology that was created in October 1953. This
laboratory studied human and animal behavior, including normal and
pathological functioning.^22 The laboratory consisted of six sections. The
Sections on Aging (James E. Birren, Chief ), Animal Behavior (Haldor E.
Rosvold, Chief ), and Perception and Learning (Virgil Carlson, Chief )
were considered part of Kety’s basic research program, while the
Developmental Psychology (Nancy Bayley, Chief ), Personality and its
Deviations (Morris Parloff, Chief ), and Chief (Shakow) Sections fell
under Cohen’s clinical research program. This would become the largest
laboratory within the NIMH’s intramural program.
The Laboratory of Clinical Science was established in June 1955
by an amalgamation of a Section on Clinical Biochemistry (Norman
Goldstein, Chief ), a Section on Clinical Physiology (Edward V. Evarts,
Chief ), and a Psychosomatic Medicine Branch (no Chief ).^23 It sought
to identify biochemical, physiological, and pharmacological correlates
to psychological processes in normal and abnormal behavior. When
Kety stepped down as director of basic research in late 1956, he became
chief of this laboratory, the second joint (basic-clinical) laboratory of
the NIMH intramural program. It consisted of seven sections. The
Sections on Biochemistry (Marian Kies, Chief ), Pharmacology (Julius
Axelrod, Chief ), Cerebral Metabolism (Louis Sokoloff, Chief ), and the
Chief (Kety) belonged in the basic research program and the Sections
on Physiology (Evarts, Chief ), Psychiatry (Seymour Perlin and later
William Pollin, Chiefs), and Medicine (Roger McDonald, Chief ) were
part of the clinical research program.
Only a few months after the creation of the Laboratory of Clinical
Science, Cohen added funds and positions to create a Section on Social
Studies in Therapeutic Settings within the Laboratory of Socio-
Environmental Studies, thus effectively making it the third joint basic-
clinical laboratory within the NIMH’s intramural research program.