Adolph Stern

Adolph Stern (1879- 20 August 1958 or 22 August 1958 ) was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst  who is credited with producing the first formal account of Borderline personality. He worked with this group who he felt did not respond well to classical psychoanalytic work. He argued that histories of trauma were very common and that more active and supportive techniques were required

He arrived in the United States at the age of 4 from Hungary. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1898 from City University of New York and his MD from Columbia University. He then worked for 3 years as a resident physician at Kings Park Psychiatric Center. He then practiced in New York in Neurology and psychiatry. He first became interested in Psychoanalysis in 1910 and by 1915 had joined the American Psychoanalytic Association. From 1914 to 1917 he was affiliated with the Neurological and Vanderbilt Clinic. In 1920 he was analysed by Sigmund Freud. Between 1920 and 1922 he was co-chief of the Mental Hygiene department of the Mount Sinai Hospital alongside Dr Oberndorf.

From 1927 to 1928 he was president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He was also president of the New York Psychoanalytic Society on three separate occasions 1922–1923, 1924–1925, and 1940–1942. Since the foundation of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1931 he was an instructor there and an emeritus instructor at the time of his death.

He died on 20 or 22 August 1958 following a short illness, whilst vacationing in his holiday home in New Jersey. Other sources state he died of a heart attack in Lenox Hill Hospital. Prior to his death he lived on 134 West Fiftyfifth Street, New York. He was survived by his widow Mamie and brothers John, Albert, Benjamin and Peter.

Important works

 * Adolph Stern (1938) Psychoanalytic Investigation of and Therapy in the Border Line Group of Neuroses, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 7:4, 467–489,
 * Adolph Stern (1957). The Transference in the Borderline Group of Neuroses. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 5(2), 348–350.