Fonds F29 - Douglas Gordon Campbell fonds

Douglas Gordon Campbell was born on 1 Feb. 1902 to George H. Campbell and Jean Russell Campbell in Toronto, Ontario. He attended primary school at the Froebel Educational Institute in London, England (1908-1913) and secondary school at the University of Toronto Schools (1913-1918). Following that, he attended the University of Toronto Medical School (1919-1925), graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine degree (M.B.) in 1925. He also obtained his professional certification from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario in that year. Later in 1925, Dr. Campbell began a rotating internship at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Moving back to Canada in 1926, he served as Resident Psychiatrist in charge of male patients at the Ontario Hospital, Mimico (now part of Toronto) until 1927. From 1927 to 1929, Dr. Campbell was employed as a Research Psychiatrist at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago, Illinois. He obtained a medical licence from the State of Illinois in 1927. Dr. Campbell married for the first time in 1928 to Berta Ochsner, a dancer. However, the marriage did not last. Berta died shortly after their divorce from a brain hemorrhage due to an aneurysm that had ruptured. Putting aside the difficulties in his personal life, Dr. Campbell focused on his career and continued his education from 1929 to 1931 by pursuing graduate courses in internal medicine and neurology in London, England and Vienna, Austria. This included clerkships at the Queen’s Square Hospital and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and at the Pözl Neurological Clinic at the University of Vienna. He also completed various courses of graduate instruction at the Universities of London and Vienna in addition to spending approximately nine months under the personal supervision of Dr. Alfred Adler in Vienna. At the end of his time in Europe, Dr. Campbell attained professional certification from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in London in 1931, and after moving back to the Canada, he completed a second medical degree (M.D.) at the University of Toronto in 1932. Moving again to Chicago in 1932, Dr. Campbell took up the position of Psychiatrist to Student Health Services at the University of Chicago, after having spent some time working in that capacity as an intern. While working in this position until 1938, Dr. Campbell became acquainted with the field of general semantics, a movement that was founded by Alfred Korzybski. Dr. Campbell first used general semantics as a method of re-educating the students who came to the Health Service for help. He also helped organize early seminars given by Korzybski at the University of Chicago and played an important role in the founding of the Institute for General Semantics in New York City in 1938. Having made the decision to reside permanently in the United States, Dr. Campbell became a naturalized American Citizen in July 1938. Temporarily moving to New York City, Dr. Campbell completed examinations at the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry (1938), obtaining a certificate in Neurology in Psychiatry. He also undertook training analysis under Dr. Karen Horney (1938-1940) and took post-graduate courses at the New York Psychiatric Institute. Aside from his private practice in New York City, Dr. Campbell also served as an Attending Physician at the Cork County Psychiatric Hospital (1938-1939). He obtained a medical licence from New York State in 1939. Dr. Campbell was married for the second time on 20 June 1940 in Virginia City, Nevada, to Marian van Tuyl, a well-known dancer. They subsequently had three children. Douglas and his new wife moved to San Francisco, California in 1940 at which time he obtained his medical licence from California. Aside from private practice, he was Consulting Psychiatrist at Mills College in Oakland and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California Medical School at Berkeley. He was also a Lecturer in Neuroanatomy (1942-1946) and in Social Welfare (1944-1953) at the medical school. Dr. Campbell had previously been a Visiting Lecturer and Director of an Education Workshop in Psychiatry at Mills College from 1939-1940. He worked at Mills College as a Lecturer in Psychiatry until 1941. While in California, Dr. Campbell held many other appointments over the years including being a Research Psychiatrist at the Head Injury Clinic and the Langley Porter Clinic in San Francisco, being a Consulting Psychiatrist for the United States Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto as well as for other regional hospitals, being a Senior Scientific Officer for the United States Embassy in London (1949), and being the Advisor for Psychiatry and Neurology with California Blue Shield. In 1956 Dr. Campbell was promoted to Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University California Medical School at Berkeley and obtained Emeritus status there in 1968. During his career, Dr. Campbell was also active in numerous professional associations and committees, notably the Institute for General Semantics, of which he was a Founding Trustee, the Director for a time, and later an Honorary Trustee. He was also a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (1968) and the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and held memberships in the following organizations: American Medical Association, Alpha Omega Alpha (Honorary Medical Fraternity), San Francisco Medical Society, San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and Society, San Francisco Association for Mental Health, Northern California Psychiatric Society, and the International Society for General Semantics. In addition, Dr. Campbell was granted life membership in the American Psychopathological Association (1967) and San Francisco Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (1977) as well as becoming an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Stress Disorders in 1971. He was also active in the movement against the use of harmful pesticides. Dr. Campbell’s research interests concerned the use of general semantics in the fields of psychiatry and neurology, human nutritional behaviour, psychosomatic medicine and dentistry, and neurological and psychiatric aspects of head and neck injuries. Aside from his medical career, Dr. Campbell also fostered a life-long interest in flying and was a member of the Flying Physicians Association. He also spent the last ten years of his life in a wheelchair because of a jubilant patient that he had released form the hospital who threw him over his shoulder only to break his back. Dr. Campbell died of cancer on 16 October 1983.