Jacob (Jake) Ellis Finesinger, MD, (1902-1959)                                    http://www.finesinger.com/

This Website is under construction. Please contact Webmaster Gerald D. Klee, MD geraldklee@comcast.net with comments and suggestions.

A brief summary of Finesinger's career

This Web page is dedicated to Jacob (Jake) Ellis Finesinger, MD  (1902-1959), an eminent medical scholar and leader who did much to advance the field of psychiatry by his outstanding contributions to research and teaching. After a distinguished career at Harvard, Finesinger was persuaded to come to Baltimore to found and develop a department of psychiatry at the University of Maryland (UM) School of Medicine in 1950.  Gerald D. Klee, MD, Webmaster and Editor 

Jacob Ellis Finesinger, MD

Introduction: Finesinger was a charismatic leader and a brilliant investigator. Like Adolf Meyer, who headed psychiatry at Johns Hopkins when Finesinger was a medical student there, Finesinger worked to integrate knowledge of the psychological and the biological aspects of the mind. With interests ranging from neurophysiology to psychoanalysis, he was dedicated to making psychiatry scientific.

I was a student of  Finesinger at Harvard and later during a Johns Hopkins residency. In 1956 he recruited me to become a junior colleague of his at UM . Our relationship lasted until his death in 1959. I was fortunate to have had many great teachers, but Jake Finesinger had the most profound and lasting influence on me. I am not alone. Before coming to the University of Maryland in 1950, Finesinger spent many years at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he played a major role in the department of psychiatry. He is still remembered with near reverence at MGH. 

Long before he died at the age of 56, Finesinger had achieved eminence both in American psychiatry and worldwide. His achievements at Harvard were enough to warrant lasting fame. He added further luster to his career by founding and building a major psychiatry department at the University of Maryland, but his early death robbed him of some of  the lasting fame he deserves. At the time of this writing (June 2004) few psychiatrists in Maryland could tell you much about him . That is very sad, considering the fact that psychiatry in Maryland owes a great deal to him. Imagine what we would be missing if the record of Adolf Meyer and his contributions to Johns Hopkins and to American psychiatry had been lost! 

I decided to do what I could to correct this deficiency by assembling as much relevant information as I could about Finesinger. Many colleagues, both from Maryland and Harvard have strongly encouraged me, and those who could, provided information. The information I have comes from a wide variety of sources, which will be described in an appendix.  Some of it is biographical, much of it deals with his academic career, and a lot of the material is about the founding of the psychiatry department at UM and the creation of the UM Psychiatric Institute. I have devoted considerable space to this because most of the records from the early days have been lost. 

When I began this project in 2003, there were still a few former department members left who were there from the earliest days when Finesinger built the department.  Despite serious health problems, they allowed me to make individual video recordings of discussions I had with each of them in their homes. Significant parts of those discussions appear in “live” clips on this Website. You can hear the story directly from neurophysiologist Robert Grenell, PhD, and psychiatrists William Fitzpatrick, MD and Jerome Styrt, MD. I was able to communicate with Dr. Enoch "Noch" Callaway , who now lives in California, by email  Grenell, Fitzpatrick and Callaway joined Jake in 1950. Styrt arrived in 1953. 

 The entire videos can't be shown on the website because they take up more hard drive space than is available. However, you can access nearly the entire audio portions under the heading Audio Full length discussions below. The recorded discussions cover a significant portion of the Finesinger story, including many details not in the written text..

The discussions took place in November of 2003. Dr. Grenell died in March.2004, at the age of 87.

I am using a website as the most effective way to make  large amount of material easily and quickly available to an audience that is spread out over the US and probably even in other countries. Not all  of the material can be shown on a website. In time, I expect to make it all available to libraries, archives and other repositories as well. 

Webmaster/Editor, Gerald D. Klee, MD

Prehistory: The University of Maryland school of Medicine was founded in 1807. The Baltimore Infirmary, which was founded in 1823, ultimately developed into the modern University of Maryland Medical Center.  http://www.mdhistoryonline.net/mdmedicine/cfm/pt2.cfm

http://www.umms.org/hospitals/ummc/

 

Before the psychiatric department  was founded in 1950, psychiatry was under the Department of Medicine at the UM Hospital and had no full time staff. Medical students received occasional lectures given by psychiatrists from the community, especially from Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital.

 

“Maryland's Shame”

Maryland was shocked by a series of 1949 Baltimore Sun articles exposing the horrible conditions prevailing in the state’s public mental hospitals. The timing was good. World War II had ended four years earlier and it was time to deal with long neglected problems within the state. Partly in response to “Maryland’s Shame”, the psychiatric community mobilized itself in 1949 and created the Maryland Psychiatric Society, which has strongly advocated patient's rights ever since. 

 

Well before the Maryland's Shame articles appeared however, state leaders had taken  steps to deal with those problems. Under the leadership of Governor William Preston Lane, the state started action in 1947 to ameliorate conditions in the state hospitals. Twenty-five million dollars was allocated to upgrade the state hospitals. The package included 3 million dollars to found a department of psychiatry at the UM Medical School and build the Psychiatric Institute. Dedication of the new Psychiatric Institute

 

  University of Maryland's response: Dr Robert Grenell told me the following. (Grenell01 video clip) At UM Hospital, Maurice Pincoffs, MD, the chief of Medicine and a nationally recognized internist, took steps to see that an independent department of psychiatry was established at UM. He recognized that a strong psychiatric program was vitally needed in the training of medical students and house officers and he knew that such a program had been in existence at Johns Hopkins since Adolph Meyer's arrival there in 1908.

http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/sgml/amg-d.htm

 

Maurice Pincoffs, MD Colonel Maurice C. Pincoffs, MC, Chief Professional Services, and Chief Consultant in Medicine, Office of The Chief Surgeon, U.S. Army

 

Finesinger appointed:

Pincoffs was also cognizant of the contribution a UM Department of psychiatry could make in raising the general level of psychiatric care in both public and private sectors. With his influential backing, the state government provided funds, and a distinguished Harvard professor of psychiatry was invited to create and head a psychiatry department at UM.  That professor was Jacob Finesinger. He founded the department and assumed the Chairmanship in 1950.  

"UM. Names Harvard Man" 

"A new psychiatry professor "

 

Finesinger was no stranger to Maryland. He did his undergraduate and graduate work at Johns Hopkins and later attended the Johns Hopkins Medical School, graduating in 1929 before moving on to Harvard. When Finesinger arrived at the UM hospital he started from scratch. There was no building and no staff. Fitzpatrick02  His office consisted of a room in the old Bressler Building (not the current Bressler Research Building ), which otherwise housed a variety of clinical services.

 

Although the department seemed to be starting out on a shoestring, Finesinger had some important things going for him besides the support of Pincoffs and money from the state. According to Grenell, Finesinger was in a uniquely strong political position within the university. Although his department and its building and staff that were to evolve, were part of the UM hospital and medical school, Finesinger was directly responsible only to the Maryland governor. Knowing how stigmatized psychiatry was, especially back then, he must have worked this out before accepting the appointment. Grenell said that this unique administrative arrangement was allowed to lapse after Finesinger's death. I have known Grenell for many years and I have confidence in the accuracy of his report, but it would be nice to have documents that confirm the arrangement. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any. If they existed, they could have disappeared many years ago.

 

Other things Finesinger had going for him included his well earned fame, his widespread professional connections and his charismatic personality. (Styrt02 video clip) He also had some splendid new visions of what a psychiatry department should be. (Styrt03 video clip) No one else could have accomplished what he did in the short time span between 1950 and his death in 1959.

 

Getting Started

Finesinger began on a part time basis in 1949 and came full time, starting in January 1950. He wasted no time in recruiting staff and residents. His earliest appointments reflected his broad interests. From the start, he was able to recruit high caliber people. In 1950 he was joined by Robert Grenell, PhD, an accomplished neurophysiologist from Johns Hopkins who was soon followed by philosopher John Reid, PhD, who he recruited from Harvard. Grenell had been running his own laboratory at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Since he joined Finesinger before there was a building to house the department Grenell retained the use of the Hopkins lab until he had one at UM. Before becoming a professor at Harvard, Dr Reid had been a Professor and Department Chair in philosophy at Stanford. Reid’s title at Maryland was Professor of Philosophy in Psychiatry. According to Grenell, “this was the first such appointment ever, anywhere.”

 

The first psychiatrists Finesinger recruited were Enoch Callaway, MD, a young research psychiatrist and William Fitzpatrick, MD, who had trained in internal medicine and psychosomatic medicine before coming to Maryland . Both started in 1950. William Magruder, MD and Jerome Styrt, MD came a bit later. Magruder came as Chief resident in 1951, after training at Duke and Styrt, who had completed residency at Sheppard Pratt Hospital and Johns Hopkins, came in 1953 as an Instructor. Salaries were low. Dr Fitzpatrick recalls starting out at $2000 per year.

 

Despite the low pay, all four early psychiatrists underwent psychoanalysis after coming to Baltimore since that was considered an essential part of psychiatric training in those days. Styrt was the only one of those four who went on to become a psychoanalyst.

 

Senior psychiatric staff recruited in the early years included professors Maurice Greenhill and Klaus Berblinger. Both came to UM from Duke. Before going to Duke, Greenhill had been with Finesinger at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a major Harvard teaching hospital. Greenhill was responsible for residency training and Berblinger was in charge of the Outpatient Service. Both arrived at the University of Maryland Psychiatric Institute (UMPI) around 1952. Soon after that, the resident staff grew rapidly, as did other professional staff positions in fields such as psychology, nursing and social work.

 

Finesinger’s appointments of neurophysiologist Robert Grenell, and the eminent philosopher John Reid were illustrative of his aim to create a broad scientific and conceptual foundation for psychiatry. Finesinger himself was a psychoanalyst. In addition to his clinical activities and teaching he had spent much of his time at Harvard (mostly at MGH) doing neurophysiological research. Like most psychiatrists of his day, he was first trained as a neurologist. (Also at Harvard, at the Boston City Hospital )

 

Enoch “Noch” Callaway, MD, who joined Finesinger in 1950, was a brilliant young investigator. IN 1954, with help from Finesinger, Callaway received one of the first NIMH Career Investigator grants ever awarded. Callaway gives Finesinger most of the credit. In a recent email message Callaway told me "I will be eternally grateful to Jake for getting me that grant. Jake had more to do with me getting it than I did" That is an example of Finesinger’s dedication to promoting the development of research people in his department. After Finesinger’s death in 1959 Callaway became head of research at Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California, San Francisco, where he has enjoyed a distinguished career.

 

With no building and no psychiatric beds, the young psychiatrists under Finesinger kept busy doing consultations on the medical wards and conveying psychiatric concepts to medical house officers and students.  “a house officer without a house” (Fitzpatrick02 video clip) (Fitzpatrick03 video clip) (Fitzpatrick05 video clip)

 

 They also saw patients in a psychosomatic outpatient clinic catering to multiproblem medical patients whose conditions had emotional components. (Fitzpatrick03 video clip)  (Fitzpatrick04 video clip) Until the new buildings for the Psychiatric Institute were completed in 1952, Finesinger spent a lot of time supervising and teaching them. Like all those taught by Finesinger throughout his career, they benefited from learning his unique interviewing techniques. Styrt01 video clip

 

Teaching Students Class hears Dr. Finesinger

"Teacher, Pupil Are Equals"  

 

Building the Psychiatric Institute

 

The building housing the UM Psychiatric Institute (UMPI) was completed and ready to receive staff and patients in mid 1952, a little over two years after Finesinger arrived. Grenell described the immense amount of attention Finesinger gave to details in planning it. (Grenell02 video clip) "He made it look more like a hotel than a mental hospital." The windows, though secure against suicide attempts, were attractive and without bars. The furnishings were of elegant Scandinavian style. Artists from the community were invited to exhibit their works on the walls of lobbies and hallways. Such exhibits helped create a warm atmosphere. In order to avoid an institutional appearance, the nurses wore street clothes. Sometimes people joked that you couldn’t tell the staff from the patients, but it usually seemed to lessen the stigmatization felt by patients. Dr. Fitzpatrick described the way the inpatient service was run as follows: (Fitzpatrick06 video clip)

 

The completion of the University of Maryland Psychiatric Institute Building  is announced 

"U.M. Medical School Opens New Institute"

Dedication of the new Psychiatric Institute 11-18-52

 

Postscript: Some years after Finesinger's death, the building housing the Psychiatric Institute was taken over by the hospital's expanding Shock-Trauma department and the department of psychiatry had to move to different quarters.

 

Child Psychiatry 

"U.M. Psychiatric Clinic Planned"

First Child Guidance Clinic

 

Death of Finesinger (October 28, 1902--June 19, 1959)

Obituaries 

Stanley Cobb's moving tribute to Finesinger also contains important biographical information. It is an excellent summary of Finesinger's professional accomplishments and describes his family life and his "lovable personality". Cobb was Chief of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Finesinger was described as Cobb's right hand man at MGH before he left to found the UM Department of Psychiatry. 

Completed Career

JAMA Obituary

SUN 06-19-59 Finesinger Obituary

SUN 06-20-59 Finesinger Obituary

SUN / Rites Set

10-17-61 Dr. Stanley Cobb Chief Speaker at Memorial

 

Ceremony- Finesinger Building for emotionally disturbed children dedicated January 11, 1961

 

Bibliography: Finesinger publications 1925-1959

 

Appendices and links 

 

Miscellaneous Finesinger-related documents

Psychosomatic Society

Jewish Family Board

Jewish Family and Children

Finesinger Represents Hopkins at Brandeis

SUN Finesinger "Likes to Work with People"

"Scientists Sometimes Faced by Blind Spots"

Finesinger Appointed at UM

Class hears Dr. Finesinger

"Some Fatigue Laid to Mind"

"Teacher, Pupil Are Equals"

"Truth For Cancer Patients Urged"

"U.M. Medical School Opens New Institute"

"U.M. Names Harvard Man"

"U.M. Psychiatric Clinic Planned"

 

Finesinger's career before founding the UM psychiatry department in 1950

After graduating from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1929,  Finesinger spent most of the next 21 years (1929-1950) at Harvard teaching hospitals. His activities during those years (click here) are well described in the excerpts from the book Stanley Cobb, A Builder of the Modern Neurosciences by Benjamin V. White. Professor Cobb was Finesinger's chief mentor and  they worked together at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1935 to 1950, when Jake left for Maryland. 

 

Finesinger Articles/Miscellaneous 

Concerning Values in Medicine: Bull Sch Med Univ Md. 1951 Oct;36(4):163-70.

Psychiatric Institute Staff Photos

Circa 1951

Circa 1955

Circa 1957

Circa 1958

 

Video and audio recordings of discussions with three professionals who joined Finesinger in the early days of the UM Psychiatric Institute. (UMPI)

The recorded discussions are with neurophysiologist Robert Grenell and psychiatrists William Fitzpatrick and Jerome Styrt.  Psychiatrist William Magruder talked with me briefly on the 'phone, but died before we could get together. I have been friends with all of the above since I joined the UMPI staff in 1956. Despite poor health and limited energy, all were happy to contribute their fond recollections of Jake and the building of the department.. Please see the  Introduction for more details.

 

  Around the same time I was able to reach Jake's only surviving child, Ruth Finesinger Kellam, who lived in Chicago. We communicated briefly by 'phone and email. She was eager to contribute to her father's story, but she was gravely ill and died before we could meet.. 

 

The earliest days; video and audio

What led to the founding of the Department of psychiatry (Grenell)

Making do without a building, a psychiatric inpatient service or a psychiatric outpatient service

Designing and erecting the Psychiatric Institute

Recollections of Finesinger, his ideas, his teaching, his personality

 

 Fitzpatrick01 video clip
 Fitzpatrick02 video clip
 Fitzpatrick03 video clip
 Fitzpatrick04 video clip
 Fitzpatrick05 video clip

 Fitzpatrick06 video clip

 

Video Clips

Grenell01 video clip

Grenell02 video clip
Grenell03 video clip
Grenell04 video clip
Grenell05 video clip

Styrt01 video clip
Styrt02 video clip
Styrt03 video clip

Audio full length discussions
Grenell
Fitzpatrick
Styrt