Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Advance Access originally published online on November 7, 2008
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2009 64(3):273-299; doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrn065
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The Maudsley Hospital and the Rockefeller Foundation: The Impact of Philanthropy on Research and Training
Correspondence: * Edgar Jones, Institute of Psychiatry, Weston Education Centre, 10 Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ. Email: edgar.jones{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk.
Correspondence: ** Shahina Rahman, King's Centre for Military Health Research, Weston Education Centre, 10 Cutcombe Road, London SE5 9RJ. Email: Shahina.rahman{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk.
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Abstract |
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Opened in February 1923 to raise the status of academic psychiatry in the UK, the Maudsley Hospital struggled to secure grant income. Without a track record of published research and lacking internationally recognized clinicians, it failed to impress the British Medical Research Council. To challenge leading U.S. and German departments of neuropsychiatry, Edward Mapother, the medical superintendent, looked overseas for investment in an "institute of psychiatry." Intense lobbying and a modified strategy for research and training designed to meet the Rockefeller Foundation's prioritization of psychiatry and medical specialization ultimately led to a significant endowment. Alan Gregg and Daniel O'Brien at the Foundation played a pivotal role in re-defining the Maudsley's programs of research and teaching. Pressure on Mapother to attract funding was matched by that on administrators required to show that their philanthropy had yielded tangible gains in public health. While wealthy charities, like the Rockefeller, often had a vision of the direction that they wished to pull medical science, and they provided much needed income, the impact of their policy agenda was not without drawbacks. Institutions unwilling to embrace a charity's philosophy were unlikely to secure grants, while those that did might find themselves drawn into less optimal areas.
Key Words: Maudsley Hospital • Rockefeller Foundation • psychiatric research • mental illness • grants • training • medical education • philanthropy
The authors wish to thank the staff of the Rockefeller Archive Center at Sleepy Hollow, the Bethlem Royal Hospital Archive and Museum, the London Metropolitan Archives, and the National Archives at Kew. The study was funded by grant from the Wellcome Trust (Reference 074988).