User:Marjorie Kaiz/Daniel Offer

Daniel Offer, M.D.

Contents

1.	Biography 2.	Career •	Adolescent Psychiatry a. The Offer Longitudinal Study b. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ) c. Deviant and Disturbed Adolescents d. The Journal of Youth and Adolescence •	The Study of Normality •	The Study of Leadership •	Life on Dialysis •	Summary 3.  Awards and Honors

Biography

Daniel Offer was born in Berlin, Germany on December 24, 1929. He is the son of Walter Hirsch, M.D. a pediatrician, and Ilse Hirsch, nee Meyer. He is a grandson of Professor Ludwig Ferdinand Meyer, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist and Director of the Emperor and Empress Friedrich Children’s Hospital in Berlin, Germany. After the rise of Nazism in April of 1933, both his father and his grandfather lost their jobs. The two families immigrated to Palestine in 1936.

Offer grew up in Jerusalem and, in February, 1948, he joined the Palmach (Strike Force) of the Israeli army. At that time he changed his name from Thomas Edgar Hirsch to Daniel Offer. He left the Israel Defense Forces as a Staff Sergeant in 1950. He then attended the University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York. He continued his education at the University of Chicago Medical School, graduating in 1957.

Offer served an internship at the University of Illinois Hospital, Chicago, Illinois followed by a psychiatric residency at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois (1958 to 1961). He remained at Michael Reese until 1990. During that time he was Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry from 1977-1987. From 1973 to 1990 he served on the faculty of the University of Chicago Medical School, becoming Professor of Psychiatry in 1974. In 1990 he become Professor of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences at Northwestern University Medical School, attaining emeritus status in 2008.

Offer was married to Judith Baskin Offer from 1961 until her death in 1976. He married Marjorie Kaiz Offer in 1979. He has three children and six grandchildren.

Career

Adolescent Psychiatry

The Offer Longitudinal Study

In 1963 Offer realized very little was known about the development of normal (ie non-patient) adolescents. He received eight years of federal grants to study the psychological development of normal adolescents. In the first phase of the study 73 incoming freshman boys were selected from two suburban Chicago area high schools and followed for eight years. The major finding for the high school phase was that stability, not turmoil, was the overriding characteristic of normal adolescents. This finding contradicted the then current notion of normal development: all adolescents go through major turmoil as they move thru the high school years. The four years of the post high school phase of the study substantiated this finding. Two books resulted from the adolescent studies:

Offer, D. 1969. The Psychological World of the Teenager: A Study of Normal Adolescent Boys. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Offer, D. and Offer, J.L. 1975. From Teenage to Young Manhood: A Psychological Study. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

During 1996 and 1997, 94% (67 individuals) of the original sample were reinterviewed at age 48. Two subjects had died of natural causes. The original finding held. All were well adjusted late middle-aged individuals. The major finding was the discovery that well-adjusted adults do not remember their adolescence accurately. The data showed there is no correlation between what our subjects as adults thought and felt about their adolescence and what they actually thought and felt when they were adolescents. The book that resulted from the study is: Offer, D., Offer, M. K. and Ostov, E. 2004. Regular Guys, 34 Years Beyond Adolescence, New York: Springer.

The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ)

The OSIQ is a psychological test developed in 1962 which uses 129 items and twelve scales to assess a teenager’s adjustment in areas such as impulse control, emotional well-being, peer relationships, family relationships, coping ability and sexuality. Over the years the OSIQ became a popular psychological test used in many countries throughout the world. It has been translated into 26 languages. Because of this global interest, Offer and his colleague undertook a cross-cultural study of the self image of adolescents in ten countries. The major finding was that adolescents growing up in very different countries are, on the whole more similar to one another than they are different. However, there were some important differences in their psychological profiles. The book that resulted from the study is:

Offer, D., Ostrov, E. Howard, R. I. and Atkinson, R. 1988. The Teenage World: Adolescents' Self-Image in Ten Countries. New York: Plenum Press.

The bank of OSIQ data generated by 30,000 adolescents both normal and psychiatrically disturbed or delinquent as well as all the data from the Offer Longitudinal Study has been placed in the Daniel Offer and Marjorie Kaiz Offer Archives at the Institute of Juvenile Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago Illinois. The development of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire resulted in the following publication:

Offer, D., Ostrov, E., Howard, K.I., and Dolan, S. 1992. The Offer Self- Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ): A Manual, Completely Revised Fifth Edition. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.

Deviant and Disturbed Adolescents

Offer undertook a five-year study, 1969 -1974, of psychiatrically disturbed juvenile delinquents. This was an empirical study to analyze the makeup of this population and how society can best help them. The authors were in charge of an inpatient unit for this population at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, a setting which allowed for an in depth study. The book that resulted from the study is:

Offer, D. Marohn, R. C. and Ostrov, E. 1979. The Psychological World of the Juvenile Delinquent. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

In the early 1990’s Holinger, Offer and colleagues examined the rates of suicide and homicide among adolescents in order to determine the causes and suggest means of prevention. The book that resulted from the study is

Holinger, P.C., Offer, D., Barter, J.T. and Bell, C.C. 1994. Suicide and Homicide Among Adolescents. New York: Guilford Press.

The Journal of Youth and Adolescence

In 1972 Offer founded The Journal of Youth and Adolescence. He served as editor-in-chief from 1972 to 2006 at which time he became Editor Emeritus.

The Study of Normality

During the beginning of the Offer Longitudinal Study, Offer became interested in how mental health professionals defined normality. Working with Melvin Sabshin, they defined the four perspectives of what constitutes normal behavior. They are: normality as health, as utopia, as average and as process. The books that resulted are:

Offer, D., and Sabshin, M. 1966. Normality: Theoretical and Clinical Concepts of Mental Health. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Offer, D., and Sabshin, M. 1974. Normality: Theoretical and Clinical Concepts of Mental Health (Second Edition). New York: Basic Books, Inc.

To broaden knowledge of what constitutes normal behavior, Offer and Sabshin with colleagues looked at normality throughout life as well as normality in different settings. The two edited books that resulted are:

Offer, D., and Sabshin, M. (eds.). 1984. Normality and the Life Cycle: A Critical Integration. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Offer, D., and Sabshin, M. (eds.). (1991). The Diversity of Normality. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

The Study of Leadership

In the 1980s Offer pursued his interest in the psychological aspects of leadership by editing a book with Charles B. Strozier. That book is:

Strozier, C.B., and Offer, D. (eds.). 1985. The Leader: Psychohistorical Essays. New York: Plenum Press.

Together they organized a collection of essays, addressing the protean nature of political leadership, tracing the history of the psychological study of leadership from ancient formulations in the Bible to the most recent and progressive psychoanalytic works.

Life on Dialysis

In June, 1999 Daniel Offer began dialysis due to renal failure. In order to help fellow renal patients navigate the world of dialysis, he wrote with his wife, Marjorie Kaiz Offer, and his daughter, Susan Offer Szafir, a guide to dealing with dialysis. The book incorporates interviews with  nephrologists, nurses, social workers, dieticians, technicians and dialysis patients and their families. That book is:

Offer, D., Offer, M. Kaiz, Szafir, S. Offer. 2007. Dialysis Without Fear. Oxford University Press; New York.

Summary

During his profession life, Offer has published 17 books and over 182 articles. In addition to the previous listed books he has also written or edited the following:

Offer, D. and Masterson, J.F. (eds.). 1971. Teaching and Learning Adolescent Psychiatry. Springfield, IL: C.C. Thomas.

Offer, D., and Freedman, D.X. (eds.). 1972. Modern Psychiatry and Clinical Research: Essays in Honor of Roy R. Grinker, Sr. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Offer, D., Ostrov, E., and Howard, K.I. 1981. The Adolescent: A           Psychological Self-Portrait. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

Offer, D., Ostrov, E., and Howard, K.I. 1984. Patterns of Adolescent Self-Image. In New Directions for Mental Health Services Series, No. 22. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Awards and Honors

Offer was recognized at a Symposium in his honor given by the Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago, Illinois. A Festschrift in his honor was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Part I: Vol. 36, No. 1:January 2007, and Part II, Vol. 37, No. 10, November, 2008. He was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto California, 1973-1974.

Offer has been recognized by many medical and scientific organizations. Among the honors he has received are the John P. Hill Memorial Award from the Society for Research in Adolescence, 1990; the Adele Hofmann Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1989; the David Dorosin Memorial Lecture of the American College Health Association, 1985; the William A. Schonfeld Memorial Lecture of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, 1985; and the J. Rosewell Gallagher Lecture of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1979.

Categories

Child and adolescent psychiatry, Cross-cultural psychiatry, Longitudinal Studies, Psychological Testing, Normality, Suicide, Homicide, Leadership, Dialysis, 1929 Births, Palmach, Univeristy of Rochester,  University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center