Independent Historian

Esther Altshul Helfgott is a nonfiction writer and poet with a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. She is writing the biography of Viennese-born Seattle psychoanalyst, Edith Buxbaum, Ph.D. Esther is the author of Listening to Mozart: Poems of Alzheimer’s (2014); Dear Alzheimer’s: A Caregiver’s Diary & Poems (2013); The Homeless One: A Poem in Many Voices (2000). Poems or essays on Alzheimer’s appear in Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease; Into the Storm: Journeys with Alzheimer’s; Mastering Caregiving in Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias; Seattle P.I.; and elsewhere. Work on psychoanalysis or Edith Buxbaum appears in American Imago: Psychoanalysis and the Human Sciences; Journal of Poetry Therapy, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Review; HistoryLink.Org: the On-line Encyclopedia of Washington State History; Seattle Star and elsewhere. Esther is a longtime literary activist, a 2010 Jack Straw poet, and founder of Seattle’s “It’s About Time Writer’s Reading Series,” now in its 32nd year.

Alyce Chenault Gullattee (1928-2020)

Alyce Chenault Gullattee, M.D., was a prominent Howard University Hospital psychiatrist, civil rights activist, member of Union Temple Baptist Church, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority member, long known to her students and patients as Mimi or Dr. G. She was also an expert on substance … Read MoreAlyce Chenault Gullattee (1928-2020)

Jeanne Spurlock, M.D. (1921-1999)

Jeanne Marybeth Spurlock was a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a writer, and researcher specializing in Black family life. In 1971, she became the first African American and the first woman to win the Edward A. Strecker, M.D. Award for outstanding contributions to the field of … Read MoreJeanne Spurlock, M.D. (1921-1999)

Toussaint Tourgee Tildon, M.D. (1893-1964)

Toussaint Tourgee Tildon was a physician and psychiatrist with the Hospital for Sick and Injured Colored World War Veterans (1923), later named the Veterans Administration of Tuskegee, Alabama (1923) from October 1923 until his retirement as Hospital Director on January 31, 1958. Tildon’s writing on African American veterans appeared in the VA Medical Bulletin (1925) and the Journal … Read MoreToussaint Tourgee Tildon, M.D. (1893-1964)

Joseph L. White (1932-2017)

Joseph L. White, known as the “Father of Black Psychology,” for exposing the implicit whiteness in the field of psychology, including education, research, and professional training, was a clinical psychologist, professor, and researcher who challenged the American Psychological Association (APA) by helping to found the Association of … Read MoreJoseph L. White (1932-2017)

Dorothy Evans Holmes (1943- )

Dorothy Evans Holmes is a psychoanalytic thinker who broke through racial, gender, and other institutional boundaries of such organizations as the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). She is in the vanguard of discourse on gender and race, including culturally-imposed trauma. She is fluent in discussions on the ineffectiveness … Read MoreDorothy Evans Holmes (1943- )

Margaret Cornelia Morgan Lawrence (1914-2019)

Margaret Lawrence, the first African American psychoanalyst and the first pediatric psychiatrist in the United States, is author of Young Inner City Families: Development of Ego Strength under Stress (New York, Behavioral Publications, 1975) and The Mental Health Team in the Schools (New York: Behavioral Publications, … Read MoreMargaret Cornelia Morgan Lawrence (1914-2019)

Veronica D. Abney (1951- )

Veronica D. Abney is a training and supervising psychoanalyst with the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (1991). She specializes in trauma associated with childhood sexual abuse and practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Santa Monica, California and Los Angeles, California. She works with preteens, adolescents, and adults. … Read MoreVeronica D. Abney (1951- )