With the death Wednesday of Dr. Karl A. Menninger just four days short of his 97th birthday, America has lost one of its best-known and most highly respected physicians.
Though known primarily for introducing psychiatry to the American people and founding the world's first psychoanalytic hospital, Menninger considered himself a doctor in the broadest sense of the word.That is, he was concerned not just with illness but with people. His overriding aim was to leave the world better than he found it.
In any event, he is credited with convincing the American people that mental illness can be treated and cured, that mental health is an everyday matter related to all aspects of life. With his father, he founded in 1925 the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., and it became one of the world's most famous hospitals for the mentally ill.
Curious about all aspects of life, he took up many causes. Among them were the eradication of child and wife abuse, humane treatment of prison inmates, saving the planet from pollution and the plight of the American Indian. He was driven to make others think, and his thirst for knowledge was virtually unquenchable.
Besides psychoanalyst and physician, he was also best-selling author of seven books and dozens of articles, lecturer, educator, avid chess player, gardener, hospital administrator and an omnivorous reader.
Above all, he was caring and compassionate, always concerned about the oppressed, the troubled and the ill. Few men could reasonably ask for a better epitaph than to be described along the lines of the late Dr. Karl A. Menninger.