Adolph Stern

Adolph Stern (1879- 20 August 1958[1] or 22 August 1958[2][3]) was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who is credited with producing the first formal account of Borderline personality.[4][5] He worked with this group who he felt did not respond well to classical psychoanalytic work.[6] He argued that histories of trauma were very common and that more active and supportive techniques were required[4]

He arrived in the United States at the age of 4 from Hungary.[3] He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1898 from City University of New York and his MD from Columbia University. He then worked for 3 years as a resident physician at Kings Park Psychiatric Center. He then practiced in New York in Neurology and psychiatry.[2] He first became interested in Psychoanalysis in 1910 and by 1915 had joined the American Psychoanalytic Association.[1] From 1914 to 1917 he was affiliated with the Neurological and Vanderbilt Clinic. In 1920 he was analysed by Sigmund Freud.[1] Between 1920 and 1922 he was co-chief of the Mental Hygiene department of the Mount Sinai Hospital alongside Dr Oberndorf.[2]

From 1927 to 1928 he was president of the American Psychoanalytic Association.[1] He was also president of the New York Psychoanalytic Society on three separate occasions 1922–1923, 1924–1925, and 1940–1942.[1] Since the foundation of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1931 he was an instructor there and an emeritus instructor at the time of his death.[1]

He died on 20[1] or 22[2][3] August 1958 following a short illness, whilst vacationing in his holiday home in New Jersey.[1] Other sources state he died of a heart attack in Lenox Hill Hospital.[3] Prior to his death he lived on 134 West Fiftyfifth Street, New York. [3] He was survived by his widow Mamie and brothers John, Albert, Benjamin and Peter. [3]