by Leon Levin, M.D.
[Spring 1999; Vol.26 No. 1]
A bequest of five million dollars has been given to the Baltimore-Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis by philanthropist Paul Mellon, who died February 1, 1999, at the age of 91.
Mr. Mellon wrote of his psychoanalysis in the 1950s with Dr. Jenny Waelder-Hall in his autobiography, Reflections in a Silver Spoon. "I can truthfully say that my whole outlook on life, my interests and responsibilities, on my relationships with my family and friends, my business and foundation colleagues, was changed for the better through my analysis with Dr. Hall."
The late Dr. Waelder-Hall, originally trained in Vienna and analyzed by Anna Freud, was for many decades, a leading training analyst and teacher in the Baltimore-Washington Institute. She was known for her pioneering work with children, and it was in her honor that Mr. Mellon had given a previous gift of $320,000 for a psychoanalytically based nursery project which will be named after Dr. Waelder-Hall.
Mr. Mellon, conversing with Harold Wylie, MD, director of the Institute, had told Dr. Wylie that he wished to support the Institute's work so that psychoanalysts would continue to be trained who would help people in the future as he was helped. Mr. Mellon is known for his generous support for the arts, most notably his endowment of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Leon Levin, MD, member of the Maryland Psychiatric Society and the Baltimore-Washington Society for Psychoanalysis