The Menninger Historic Psychiatry Collection includes many notable individuals in the field of psychology and psychiatry. Other individuals such as King George III (right) are included for being famously "mad".
The material found in this collection was donated to or collected by members of the Menninger family. The activities and achievements of the following individuals are highlighted in this collection.
Lucio Bini discovered electro-convulsive shock therapy, aided by fellow Italian Ugo Cerletti, in 1938. Anton Boisen headed the clinical pastoral education movement which taught the benefits of having hospital chaplains and theology in the mental health setting. Dorothea Dix was a mental health advocate and activist for designated mental health facilities and asylums dedicated to the treatment of those suffering from a mental illness. Henry Havelock Ellis was a British psychologist who studied human sexuality. Anna Freud and her father, Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, often corresponded with members of the Menninger family. This photograph (below) shows Anna Freud meeting Dr. Karl Menninger and Dr. Bob Menninger.
Harry Guntrip was a psychoanalyst who published several works relating to the development of the psyche based on one's environment. William James was an American psychologist and philosopher. Herman S. Major operated a psychiatric facility devoted to the treatment of alcoholics in Kansas City, Missouri. Silas Weir Mitchell was an American physician who specialized in neurology and authored many poems and short stories. Florence Nightingale pioneered the field of nursing in the 19th Century. Nina Ridenour authored a fifty year history of mental health in the United States, as well as many other publications. Benjamin Rush, in addition to being a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, is known as the "Father of American Psychology." Elmer Ernest Southard directed the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and mentored Dr. Karl Menninger. Frankwood E. Williamsdirected the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Walker Winslow authored a biography about the Menninger family.