EDELSON, Marshall 1928-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born May 31, 1928, in Chicago, IL; died of congestive heart failure January 16, 2005, in Woodbridge, CT. Psychiatrist, educator, and author. Edelson, a retired Yale University professor, was known for his studies on sociotherapy and group behavior, as well as for his defense of psychoanalysis. He earned an A.B. from Stanford University in 1949. Returning to Chicago, he completed a Ph.D. in 1954 and earned his medical degree the next year. After gaining experience as a psychiatry resident at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Maryland, he joined the University of Oklahoma faculty in 1961. He left the university in 1963 to work as a staff psychologist for the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, during the mid-1960s. Finally, in 1968, he was hired as an associate professor at Yale University. Edelson would remain at Yale for the rest of his career, becoming a full professor in 1976 and retiring in 1998. He also served as director of medical studies and of education in the department of psychiatry. As a researcher and writer, Edelson was unique in his efforts to combine the disciplines of psychiatry and psychoanalysis with the humanities and social sciences. He was also a strong advocate of in-patient psychiatric care, and he gained attention for his defense of psychoanalysis, a practice that was starting to lose favor when he published Psychoanalysis: A Theory in Crisis (1988). Among Edelson's many other publications are Sociotherapy and Psychotherapy (1970), Language and Interpretation in Psychoanalysis (1984), and Rediscovering Groups: A Psychoanalyst's Journey beyond Individual Psychology (1999), the last written with David N. Berg. Edelson earned numerous awards for his teaching at Yale, most recently the Stephen Fleck Faculty Award as Exemplary Physician and Clinical Teacher in 1996. He also was presented with the Edith Sabshin Teaching Award from the American Psychoanalytic Association in 2001.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, January 21, 2005, p. B9.

New York Times, January 21, 2005, p. A21.

ONLINE

Yale Bulletin & Calendar,http://www.yale.edu/opa/ (January 28, 2005).