| He Gave So Much of Himself /Nicholas A. Cummings, Ph.D., Sc.D. | |
 |
This Was A Man–A Very Extraordinary One/Stanley R. Graham, Ph.D. |
| Establishing Collaborative Multidisciplinary Teams in the Treatment of Children and Adolescents/David B.Goldstein |
| Stanley R. Graham, Ph.D.
Former President, American |
This Was A Man–A Very Extraordinary One
As a teenager in Nazi Germany, Herb Freudenberger put on his boy scout uniform, got on a train, passing through Switzerland he jumped off and made his way to Paris. He managed to exist by his wits until he obtained a visa to the United States. He arrived in this country alone, nobody met the boat, he knew no English. He had relatives in the Bronx but he had no way of knowing who or what the Bronx was or how to get there. His reception when he did arrive was quite poor and rather than be neglected and mistreated he took to the streets ultimately going to school and working in a factory. I met Herb right after the war when he was at NYU. I just come out of the Air Force. He was a brilliant student and still worked 24 hours a day to sustain himself. We were both involved in the New York State Psychological Association, but both being rebels we found little comfort there. When I met Herb again we were both involved in APA, The new Division 29 and a very small group called Psychologists in Private Practice. Nobody wanted to be President of this small group and I accepted the job by default. The story is told elsewhere of the founding of Division 42. We began to meet in Herb Freudenberger’s office. Herb was a superb analyst, a scholar, a man of great dignity. We travelled to many meetings and conventions but he would never fly with his wife. They felt too responsible for their three children. Having lost so much of his country and his family, he told me that he had written the burnout books for the explicit purpose of making sure that his children’s education and future would be assured. His achievements were not for pride but for purpose. I think as Division 42 developed, Herb took a step back for he was always focused on his family and their well being, his practice and teaching. Herb was way ahead of me in understanding the development of the women’s movement in APA I think because he was so very close to his wife and his daughters. Herb was the ultimate diplomat. He did not fight, he convinced, he didn’t separate, he brought people together. When my term as Division 42 president was ending, I begged Herb to serve as the second president because he had gifts of order and structure and the talent of working quietly with almost anyone to good effect. The two best things I ever did was to ask Herb to be president and Arthur Kovacs to serve as our first council representative. Of course I also made a lot of mistakes but Herb made fewer because he thought things out so intensely and carefully. When Herb taught at the new school for social research he visited my home Which was a few blocks away. Because he was a street observer He would never eat anything there, however, he told me of work he was doing with covenant house so many nights after 10-12 hours working in the office. Herb would work at bringing runaway children out of the streets, fighting pimps and drug pushers. He did great goodness that no one knew about and for this I honor him more than for his great scholariness, brilliance and talents. He loved his family. He loved his friends. We were born on the same day in the same year exactly and he would call me every November 26 and say “Happy Birthday.” He did not call this year and so I will be his Anthony and say, “His life was gentle and the qualities so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, “this was a man.” |
||||
| Return to Top | |||||