Oral Histories

Interview of Augustus S. Rose

UCLA professor of neurology and founding chair of the UCLA Department of Neurology, the founding division of the Neuropsychiatric Institute.
Subtitle:
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital: Augustus S. Rose
Series:
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital
Topic:
Science, Medicine, and Technology
UCLA and University of California History
UCLA Research Centers and Programs
Biographical Note:
UCLA professor of neurology and founding chair of the UCLA Department of Neurology, the founding division of the Neuropsychiatric Institute.
Interviewer:
Balter, Michael S.
Interviewee:
Rose, Augustus S.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Length:
4.7 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Series Statement:
This series was made possible by support from the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital and documents the history of that institution.
Abstract:
Family background in North Carolina; father's death when Rose was eleven; a strict religious upbringing; attending Davidson College; decision to enter medicine; enrollment in the School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Charles Mangum; admitted to Harvard University Medical School; fellowships at Harvard; a trip to Britain in 1930; internship at Massachusetts General Hospital; marriage to Grace Duncan; learning the importance of a patient's psychological state when recovering from physical illness; interning in psychiatry at McLean Hospital; the state of psychosomatic medicine in the 1930s; appointed associate professor of anatomy at the University of North Carolina; return to Massachusetts General Hospital as staff assistant; supervising treatment of neurological syphilis at Boston Psychopathic Hospital; searching for a new treatment for malaria; position at Harvard University Medical School; developing a private practice with motion-picture-industry patients; treating Judy Garland; neurological consultant to the Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Los Angeles; planning a psychiatry program for UCLA; recruiting psychiatry faculty; plans for the Neuropsy-chiatric Institute (NPI); opposition to NPI on the University of California Board of Regents; Howard C. Naffziger; the Brain Research Institute; politicking for and against NPI; neurology's difficulties within the Department of Medicine; John and Elizabeth Harris; neurology gains financial autonomy; development of the Reed Neurological Research Center; Clarence C. Reed; developing a closer relationship between neuro-logy and NPI; the naming of NPI in 1961; relationship of neurology to NPI; on Norman Q. Brill's resignation as director of NPI; George Tarjan and Henry H. Work; the Mental Retardation Program Research Center; university bureaucracy; research interests in multiple sclerosis; developing special clinics in multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, and epilepsy; promoting the study of neurobehavior; the Augustus S. Rose Chair of Neurology; patient care and medical instruction; psychosomatic medicine; the Marion Davies bequest; Louis Jolyon West; relationships between psychiatry and neurology; protests against a proposed clinic for the study of violent behavior; retirement in 1974; appointed Veterans Administration Distinguished Physician in Neurology; ongoing teaching positions.