Loss of Patient-Loving Harvard Psychiatrist

Loss of Patient-Loving Harvard Psychiatrist

Here is an announcement of the death of a Harvard psychiatrist. As usual he
is described as a "caring" man by his attorney. What else would you expect?
Isn't it only caring psychiatrists and brutal, violent patients who make up the
universe? Forced drugging and forced treatment is only done out of love and
caring for the poor unfortunate ones. Ahem!
--
Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

John Mack, Pulitzer Prize winner, alien abduction researcher, dies
By Associated Press
Boston Globe
September 28, 2004

BOSTON --Dr. John E. Mack, the Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry
who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Lawrence of Arabia and also
conducted research on people who claimed to be abducted by aliens, has died.
Mack was struck and killed by an alleged drunken driver in London on Monday
while attending the T.E. Lawrence Society Symposium in Oxford, England,
according to a release on the John E. Mack Institute Web site. He was 74.
Harvard Medical School spokesman Don Gibbons confirmed the death.
Mack, who won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1977 for "A Prince of Our
Disorder" on the life of World War I British officer T.E. Lawrence, better known
as Lawrence of Arabia, was one of several speakers at the symposium.
Mack made two presentations at the symposium on Monday, and was struck in a
crosswalk while walking to the home at which he was staying, according to
police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mack's extensive research of about 200 people from around the world who claimed
to have had encounters with space aliens found that they had a heightened sense
of spirituality and environmentalism.
He wrote about his subjects' experiences in two books, 1994's "Abduction" and
1999's "Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters."
His work was also the subject of the 2003 documentary film "Touched."
His efforts, which found that people claiming to be abducted came from all walks
of life and generally had no evidence of mental illness, met with skepticism and
criticism from some elements of the academic community.
In 1994, Harvard Medical School established a committee of peers to review his
clinical care and clinical investigation of the people he interviewed in the
course of his alien abduction research and initiated proceedings to determine
whether he should retain tenure.
After the 14-month investigation, the school "reaffirmed Dr. Mack's academic
freedom to study what he wishes and to state his opinions without impediment."
"I am just so devastated by this news," said Roderick MacLeish, the attorney who
represented Mack during the Harvard investigation. "This is a great loss. John
was one of the kindest, most compassionate mental health clinicians I have ever
met, and I have represented many psychiatrists."
Mack's early work focused on clinical explorations of dreams, nightmares and
teen suicide and how world perception affects relationships. He advocated a move
away from materialism in Western culture, blaming it for the Cold War and global
ecological problems.
"He was so caring to his patients, and I hope that is what he is remembered for,
and not for being the guy who believed in people's stories of alien abductions,"
MacLeish said.
Mack was born in New York City. He earned an undergraduate degree from Oberlin
College in 1951 and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1955. He
served in the U.S. Air Force from 1959-61.
No funeral or burial information was immediately available.
On the Web: http://johnmackinstitute.org