Meyer, Adolf 1866-1950

A LEADER OF AMERICAN PSYCHIATRY

Psychobiology.

Adolf Meyer was the leading non-Freudian psychiatric theorist in the United States. He was born on 13 September 1866 in Niederweningen, Switzerland, the son of a minister and the nephew of a doctor, and grew up in an atmosphere of liberalism and reflection. Meyer was trained in neurobiology and neurophysiology at the University of Zurich, where he received his M.D. degree in 1892. He had hoped for the post of assistant to the professor of medicine at Zurich, but when this was denied him he decided to go to the United States. His first appointment was as a pathologist at the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane at Kankakee, Illinois. Meyer soon became acquainted with the work of psychologist William James, the philosopher-educator John Dewey, and others who were molding psychology and philosophy. He blended these different influences into a concept of human behavior that he...

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