By Gerald Klee, MD
[Summer 2007; Vol. 33, No. 3; Pg. 12-13]
Wayne “Whitey” Jacobson, a widely admired
Maryland psychiatrist, died of a heart attack in his home on April 7, 2007.
Dr Jacobson was born and raised in Rock
Springs, Wyoming, a railroad and coal mining town with a largely immigrant
population.
He suffered many severe childhood illnesses,
including rheumatic fever, scarlet fever and whooping cough. A period of
treatment at the Mayo Clinic helped kindle an early interest in the field of
medicine.
During his long periods of confinement from
illness, Wayne read anything he could get his hands on, retaining this habit
almost to the day he died.
As a youth in Wyoming, he shared his enjoyment
of the outdoors with his family. Many gatherings and reunions were parts
of camping and fishing trips. These became a focal point for the entire
extended family.
Dr Jacobson played sports in high school, but
he excelled on the debating team.
He entered the University of Wyoming when he
finished high school in 1941. His professional ambition at this time was
to become a high school chemistry teacher.
In the summer of 1942, he enlisted in the Navy
and became a hospital corpsman on the USS Mt. Vernon - a ship that sent
troops out to the South Pacific and returned with sick and wounded.
He completed his premedical training in the US
Navy V-12 program and in 1945 he entered the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
and married his hometown sweetheart, Katherine Winter.
Dr. Jacobson did an internship in internal
medicine, but he was so impressed by Dr. John Whitehorn, the Hopkins Chief of
Psychiatry, that he switched to psychiatry.
In 1952, after his residency, he enlisted in the Army
Medical Corps. He returned to Hopkins Hospital in 1955, where he was chief
resident in psychiatry. Between 1955 and 1960, he did research at Hopkins, and
also started the Group Therapy Program at Sheppard & Enoch Pratt Hospital,
where he was Clinical Director. He served as an Associate Professor of
Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1960 to 1965. He
then returned to Baltimore. After another year at Hopkins he spent the
remainder of his career in full time private practice in Towson, MD.
Dr. Jacobson knew his chemistry and
pharmacology, but he regarded psychotherapy as a central component of
psychiatric treatment. Dr. Robert Ward, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at
Johns Hopkins, remembers years ago, when Dr. Jacobson warned that the growth of
biological psychiatry was leading to a neglect of training in psychotherapy.
Sadly, that prediction has come to pass in many training centers.
Dr Jacobson’s son, Eric, told me:
“In 1987, he (Dr Jacobson) retired and
continued to pursue his passions – fishing, hunting, golfing and gardening.
He was able to enjoy his outdoor pursuits even into his early eighties thanks to
help from friends and family.
“On the day before his own death, a smile
came over Dad’s face when he wistfully remembered the largest rainbow trout
that he had ever hooked (and that subsequently got away). As he retold the
tale, a kid’s joy was expressed all over again.
“And in that memory, there is the
illustration of one of Dad’s beliefs. It is the process of fishing –
just like it is the process of living one’s life – that is the great joy and
reward.
“When thinking about Dad’s beliefs,
another one of his maxims comes to mind – always leave your campsite a little
better than the way you found it. Dad leaves this world a better place
because of the people along the way that he loved, helped, healed, influenced
and inspired. Talking with many people over the last few days has reminded
me of this so poignantly.
“I have met no one else whose moral compass
has fixedly stayed so true, who has been so clear and unambiguous about what a
man should be and how he should live his life. I cannot begin to imagine
how altered my life would be were it not for this man who was my father.”
Eric’s eulogy for his father speaks for me,
as well as for Whitey’s many other friends and colleagues who knew him well.
Wayne and Katherine had two children, a
daughter, Kirsten and a son, Eric.
Katherine died in 2003 and Kirsten died in
2004.
Dr Jacobson is survived by a son, Eric Wayne
Jacobson of New York City; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.