{{short description|American physician (1900–1974)}} {{for|the botanist|Erich Lindemann (botanist)}} alt=Image of Lindemann who got a Doctorate in psychology in 1922|thumb|Lindemann E. Doctorate in psychology in 1922 '''Erich Lindemann''' (born 2. May 1900 in Witten, Germany — died 16. November 1974 in Boston, MA) was a German-American writer and psychiatrist, specializing in bereavement. He worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston as the Chief of Psychiatry and is noted for his extensive study on the effects of traumatic events on survivors and families after the Cocoanut Grove night club fire in 1942.<ref>{{cite web|date=29 November 2018|title=The Fire That Changed The Way We Think About Grief|author-first1=Eva K. |author-last1=Rosenfeld|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/11/29/erich-lindemann-cocoanut-grove-fire-grief/ |website=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=1 December 2025|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250624165516/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/11/29/erich-lindemann-cocoanut-grove-fire-grief/|archive-date=24 June 2025}}</ref> His contributions to the field of mental health led to the naming of a joint Harvard University–Commonwealth of Massachusetts-run mental health complex in Boston in his honor, the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=A memorial to Erich Lindemann|author-first1=Leonard J. |author-last1=Duhl|date=July 1975|doi=10.1002/1520-6629(197507)3:3<300::AID-JCOP2290030316>3.0.CO;2-U|journal=Journal of Community Psychology|volume=3|issue=3}}</ref>
==Education== Lindemann was a graduate of the University hospital Gießen und Marburg and the Academy of Medicine in Düsseldorf, earning his doctorate in psychology in 1922 and his doctorate in medicine in 1927. In the same year he earned a fellowship to Harvard Medical School, and in 1929 made his move to the United States permanent.<ref name="Das amerikanische Mental Health Program - Erich Lindemanns Beiträge zur sozialen Therapie">{{cite web|last=Kutter|first=Peter|title=Das amerikanische Mental Health Program - Erich Lindemanns Beiträge zur sozialen Therapie|url=http://kobra.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/bitstream/urn:nbn:de:hebis:34-2009111331013/1/SchriftenZurSozialenTherapie4.pdf|work=Schriften zur Sozialen Therapie|publisher=Gesamthochschule Kassel Universität|accessdate=27 October 2013}}</ref>
==Work== Author of "Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief", a paper on posttraumatic stress disorder.<ref>{{Cite journal|author-last1=Lindemann|author-first1=Erich|title=Symptomatology and management of acute grief|year=1944|journal=The American Journal of Psychiatry|volume=151|number=6|doi=10.1176/ajp.151.6.155|pmid=8192191}}</ref> It was published in September 1944.
Studied the survivors of the Cocoanut Grove fire (1942), which was the deadliest nightclub fire in United States history.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3407200126.html| title = Grief |website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
Developed the field of Community Mental Health and Social Psychiatry. Erich and his wife, Elizabeth, created the first community mental health center in the United States: the Human Relations Service of Wellesley.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/11/hms-field-station-founder-elizabeth-lindemann-dies/|title=HMS field station founder Elizabeth Lindemann dies|date=8 November 2007|work=The Harvard Gazette|access-date=1 December 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250601040101/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/11/hms-field-station-founder-elizabeth-lindemann-dies/|archive-date=1 June 2025|url-status=live}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} *David G. Satin, M.D. Community Mental Health, Erich Lindemann, and Social Conscience in American Psychiatry (New York, Routledge, 2021) 3 volumes *Lindemann, Elizabeth B., Erich Lindemann: A Biographical Sketch (privately published, 1987) *Lindemann, Erich, Beyond Grief: Studies in Crisis Intervention (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1979)
==External links== * David George Satin, M.D. [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/986178?uid=3739192&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102330747617/ Erich Lindemann: The Humanist and the Era of Community Mental Health], Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 126, Number 4, Aug. 1982 * [https://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3407200126.html/ Grief], Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 2003 * S. Fleck, [https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF00578081 Erich Lindemann 1900–1974], Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Volume 10, Number 3, 153, {{doi|10.1007/BF00578081}} *[https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/med00191/catalog Erich Lindemann papers, 1885-1991 (inclusive), 1950-1974 (bulk). H MS c219. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindemann, Erich}} Category:American psychiatrists Category:German psychiatrists Category:1974 deaths Category:Physicians of Massachusetts General Hospital Category:1900 births Category:20th-century American medical doctors Category:German emigrants to the United States Category:Harvard Medical School people
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