Philip Holzman


Philip Holzman was an investigator of schizophrenia and one of the first to engage in the scientific study of the genetic constituents of its pathophysiology. Among his important researches were those involving the biological relatives of schizophrenics. He also conducted several early studies on voice confrontation.

Early life and education

Holzman was born in 1922 in New York City. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1943. In 1952, he finished a doctorate, at the University of Kansas.

Career

He worked at the Menninger Foundation and the University of Chicago, then founded the Psychology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts in 1977. He was also part of the research group at the Mailman Research Center, founded by Seymour Kety.
Holzman was the Esther and Sidney R. Rabb Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and a supervising and training analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He was at Harvard between 1977 and 2002, having moved there after spending a decade as Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago. In 2002, he accepted Emeritus status from the University.
In the 1960s, Holzman conducted several studies on the causes of voice confrontation.

Recognition

Holzman was made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1979 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1982; in 2001, he received the American Psychological Foundation's Alexander Gralnick research award.

Personal life and death

He was married to Ann for 58 years, and had three children. Philip Holzman died of a stroke in Boston on 1 June 2004.