Ackerman attended a public school in New York City. In 1929 he was awarded a B.A. from Columbia University, and in 1933 earned his M.D. from the same university. After a short spell (1933-34) as an intern at the Montefiore Hospital in New York, he interned at the Menninger Clinic and Sanitorium in Topeka, Kansas. He joined their psychiatric staff in 1935.
He assumed the post of chief psychiatrist at the Menninger Child Guidance Clinic in 1937. For the next fourteen years, Ackerman was also chief psychiatrist to the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York City. During this period, he had numerous positions at a variety of institutions in New York City. Ackerman acted as psychiatrist to the Red Cross Rehabilitation Clinic during World War II, and also worked as a consultant to the department of scientific research when it was first established by Max Horkheimer in 1944. After the war, Ackerman assumed the post of clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, and later lectured at the New York School of Social Work, a part of Columbia University. He also lectured (1944-48) at the Visiting Nurse Service and the Community Service Society.
In addition to his active career in New York City, Ackerman served as visiting professor of psychiatry for a number of universities, including Tulane University and the University of North Carolina. In 1952 Ackerman served as a member of the White House Conference on Children in Washington D.C.
Pioneers field of family psychology
Ackerman publishedThe Unity of the FamilyandFamily
Diagnosis: An Approach to the Preschool Childin 1938, both of which
contributed to the initial promotion of the theory of family therapy. In
1950 Ackerman wrote a book on anti-Semitism in collaboration with Marie Jahoda. Sponsored by the American Jewish Committee,Anti-Semitism and
Emotional Disorder, a Psychoanalytic Interpretationexamines and
analyzes the phenomenon and offers possible solutions. He went on to
write many books during his career, includingThe Psychodynamics of
Family Life(1958) andTreating the Troubled Family(1966).
He co-authored several books, includingExploring the Base for Family
Therapyand published more than 100 articles in professional
journals.
Ackerman is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in his field and
credited with developing the concept of family psychology. In 1955 he
was the first to initiate a debate on family therapy at a meeting of the
American Orthopsychiatric Association, with the intention of opening
lines of communication in this new branch of psychiatry. He believed
that the mental or physical disposition of one family member would
affect other family members, and that often the best way to treat the
individual was to treat the family as a whole. In fact he was a very
strong advocate of treating the whole family in order to solve the
problems of the individual. He devoted most of his career to family
psychotherapy.
Ackerman's work was deeply appreciated by his peers, as evidenced by
the number of awards bestowed upon him. He received the Rudolph Meyer
award from the Association for Improvement to Mental Health in 1959. He
was also the recipient of the Wilfred Hulse award for group
psychotherapy in 1965.
Founds institute to study the family
He served as the director of this establishment up until his death,
when it was renamed the Nathan W. Ackerman Institute (usually known as
the Ackerman Institute) in his honor. The Institute has its own journal,Family Process,which was the first ever family therapy journal,
started by Ackerman in association with Don Jackson. This journal
remains a principal reference for other professionals in the field.
Today the Ackerman Institute is considered perhaps the finest facility
for family psychology in the world.
In addition to being a fellow of the American Board of Psychiatry and
the New York Academy of Medicine, Ackerman was also president (1957-59)
of the Association of Psychoanalytic Medicine, as well as a member of
the Academy of Child Psychiatry, the American Psychopathalogical
Society, and the New York Council of Child Psychiatry.
Ackerman died on June 12, 1971, and was buried in Westchester Hills
Cemetery, Hastings on Hudson, New York.
Further Reading
- 阿克曼研究所Ackerman Institutehttp://www.ackerman.org
- http://www.answers.com/topic/nathan-ackerman
- http://www.abacon.com/famtherapy/ackerman.html
- Nathan W. Ackerman: Books on Amazon.com
Other books:
Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology: Ackerman, Nathan Ward (1908-1971) [HTML] (Digital)
《家庭治疗的力量》Bloch & Simon 1982年整理的阿克曼论文集。