Nathan Adler (psychologist)

Nathan Adler
Born(1911-02-11)February 11, 1911
DiedMay 2, 1994(1994-05-02) (aged 83)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Psychologist, writer
RelativesIrving Adler (brother)

Nathan Adler (1911–1994) was an American psychoanalyst, a lecturer in Criminology and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and professor of clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Berkeley/Alameda.[1] Between 1965 and 1970 he conducted extensive clinical studies of drug users in the San Francisco Bay area. He authored the book The Underground Stream: New Lifestyles and the Antinomian Personality.[2] In his youth, he wrote for several prominent leftist journals in New York and served on the editorial board of the New Masses.[3][4]

Early life

Nathan Adler was born in New York City, the second of five children. His siblings were Martha, Irving, Bob, and Ray. His parents emigrated to the United States from a part of Austria that is now in Poland. His father Marcus arrived in 1906 and his mother Celia (née Kress) arrived four years later along with his elder sister, Martha. After moving to San Francisco, he worked for the Jewish Personal Service Committee, providing counseling for inmates at San Quentin and Alcatraz prisons.[5] He began his studies in psychology in San Francisco under the mentorship of Siegfried Bernfeld and served on the board of the Mental Hygiene Society of Northern California.[6] In 1943 he married Elizabeth Haverstock Adler (1912 - 2006), a public health educator who taught at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.[7]

A photo of Nathan Adler circa 1994

References

  1. ^ Benveniste, Daniel. "SIEGFRIED BERNFELD IN SAN FRANCISCO: A CONVERSATION WITH NATHAN ADLER" (PDF). Fort Da. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 23, 2016.
  2. ^ Nathan, Adler (1972). The underground stream: New life styles and the antinomian personality. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0061316838.
  3. ^ Wald, Alan M. (2012). Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary Left. UNC Press Books. p. 355.
  4. ^ M. Wald, Alan (2007). Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade. University of North Carolina Press. p. 160.
  5. ^ "Prisoners Thank Jewish Workers". September 7, 1945.
  6. ^ Benveniste, Daniel (July 2006). "The Early History of Psychoanalysis in San Francisco" (PDF). Psychoanalysis and History. 8 (2): 195–233. doi:10.3366/PAH.2006.8.2.195. S2CID 8838672. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 4, 2019.
  7. ^ "Obituary: Elizabeth Haverstock Adler". San Francisco Chronicle.