In Memoriam: Noted Yale Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst Marshall Edelson, M.D.

Marshall Edelson, M.D., professor emeritus of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, where he was a faculty member for more than 30 years, died January 16 at his home in Woodbridge, Conn. He was 76.

Edelson, a noted psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, scholar, and teacher, was the author of nine books and numerous articles on the practice and theory of both individual and group psychotherapy. He wrote several highly influential books in the 1960s and 1970s that shaped the study of group behavior and sociotherapy. Among these books were “Ego Psychology, Group Dynamics, and the Therapeutic Community;” “Sociotherapy and Psychotherapy;” and “The Practice of Sociotherapy: A Case Study.”These books reflected his thoughts on his experiences as a psychiatrist at Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Mass., from 1964 to 1968.

Edelson became a leader in developing the idea and practice of the therapeutic community in psychiatric in-patient settings. He returned to the topic of groups in 1999 with his book, “Rediscovering Groups: A Psychoanalyst’s Journey Beyond Individual Psychology,” which was written with David Berg.

He was equally known for his theoretical writings. He explored such topics as the boundaries between psychoanalytic theory and the social sciences in such books as “Language and Interpretation in Psychoanalysis.” In other works Edelson explored the scientific status of psychoanalysis, “Hypothesis and Evidence in Psychoanalysis” and “Psychoanalysis: A Theory in Crisis,” and applied the philosophy of science to the task of formulating and testing psychoanalytic theory.

Edelson received many awards for excellence in scholarship and teaching. He received the Heinz Hartmann Award from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in New York for outstanding work in psychoanalysis. He received multiple awards from the Yale Department of Psychiatry for excellence in teaching, including the Stephen Fleck Faculty Award as Exemplary Physician and Clinical Teacher in 1996. He taught several generations of psychiatrists at Yale about psychotherapy and clinical interpretation; research methods, and group process, organization, and leadership. He also received the Edith Sabshin Teaching Award from the American Psychoanalytic Association in 2001.

In the 1990s and after his retirement from Yale in 1998, he began teaching, writing and speaking about the movies, a longtime personal passion that became a professional interest.

Edelson was a highly regarded practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His work as a physician was central to his life. His favorite quotation was from the Talmud: “Whoever saves a single life, Scripture regards him as if he had saved the entire world.”

He was a Career Teaching Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health; a member of the Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies at Princeton, N.J.; the Klein-Rapaport Study Group in Stockbridge, Mass.; and the Western New England Psychoanalytic Society in New Haven.

Edelson received his M.D. from the University of Chicago Scool of Medicine and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Department of Psychology. He completed a residency in psychiatry at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Maryland.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Zelda Toll Edelson of Woodbridge; three children, Jon Edelson, M.D., of Scarsdale, N.Y., Bec Edelson of Los Angeles; and Dave Tolchinsky of Chicago, Ill., as well as a brother, Chuck Edelson of Moshav Orot, Israel, and six grandchildren.