First Albert J. Solnit Lecture at Yale Child Study Center March 21

The first Albert J. Solnit endowed lecture will be delivered by John E. Schowalter, M.D., The Albert J. Solnit Emeritus Professor of Child Psychiatry, on Monday, March 21, 2005 at 4 p.m. in the Donald J. Cohen Auditorium, Child Study Center, 230 South Frontage Road.

A reception in Harkness Lounge, 367 Cedar St. will follow.

Schowalter’s lecture, titled “Care Giving, Care Taking and Career Building” stems from his experience as director of training at the Child Study Center from 1969 to 1996, his work as Interim and Acting Director of the Center in 2001, as well as his national leadership roles in determining standards for training and certification in adult and child psychiatry.

Schowalter is well known for his many publications on adolescence, pediatric consultation, thanatology, pets and humor. His clinical practice specialized in adolescents and college students. He has served as President of numerous organizations and professional certification boards.

Albert J. Solnit, M.D. (1919–2002) served as Director of the Child Study Center from 1966 to 1983, and was named Sterling Professor in 1970. He was a child psychiatrist, pediatrician and psychoanalyst, who fostered collaborative work in pediatrics and developmental research with abused and neglected children. He was Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services for the State of Connecticut from 1991 through 2000.

An internationally renowned adult and child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Solnit, (“Al” as he liked to be called), remained active in his clinical, scholarly, and teaching roles until his death in 2002 at age 82. He served as managing editor of the journal The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child for 20 years, and as coordinator of the Muriel Gardiner Program in Psychoanalysis and the Humanities.

Future lectures will reflect Solnit’s scholarly work, which included psychiatry and the law, advocacy for children and families, pediatric consultation, the creative process, and the clinical developmental study of the human life cycle.