History of the Anne Sippi Clinic
By Jack
Rosberg, Founder of the Anne Sippi Clinic
The seeds of the Anne Sippi
Clinic were sown long before its emergence in 1975. I began my career in 1954
supervised by John N. Rosen, M.D. in Bucks County, PA. Dr. Rosen was, along with
Harry S. Sullivan and Freida Fromm Reichman, one of the earliest contributors to
the psychotherapy of schizophrenia in the United States. He introduced a very
active treatment form with the most severely regressed schizophrenic patients.
His approach aroused the curiosity of the professional world. To quote Lawrence
Kubie: "if nothing else, he rocked the professional world out of its
complacency." Rosen had his professional practice outside of hospitals and his
patients resided in houses in a farming community, which in those days and even
today, represents a unique treatment setting.
I had the privilege of
developing a treatment direction during my work with Rosen that I later called
Direct Confrontation. When I left Dr. Rosen in mid 1957 and entered into private
practice in dealing with patients diagnosed as schizophrenic in private
hospitals in Los Angeles, CA., it became increasingly apparent to me that
treatment with the serious mentally ill was severely hampered by the
restrictions imposed by a staff that focused treatment with these patients on
the medical model. The physical methods of treatment, such as Electric
Convulsive Therapy, the growing emphasis on medication as a treatment of choice
and the long periods of time spent in psychiatric hospitals were iatrogenic.
Many great contributors including Eugene Bleuler, who coined the term
schizophrenia, cautioned about the negative effects of long-term
hospitalization. My primary interest was and is the psychotherapy of
schizophrenia. I found, much to my surprise, quite early in my career, the
different and innovative directions in treatment other than traditional methods
disturbed the professional world around me and many obstacles were strewn in my
path. However, despite this I continued working with patients actively with the
growing realization that effecting a relationship and a shared belief system,
led to a more positive and lasting outcome than the palliative measures used by
the majority of the professionals in the world of mental health.
The
developing course of my treatment direction stimulated the interest of
professionals from the psychoanalytic to the reality oriented and even to the
Orthomolecular world. These were mature individuals. People who could look at
new ideas and treatment directions, without any preconceived ideas.
Professionals, such as Martin Grotjahn, M.D. a distinguished training analyst.
Psychiatrists, Humphrey Osmond, Abraham Hoffer, Harvey Ross and a host of those
involved in other treatment directions, became supportive as they perceived my
efforts influencing change with regressed schizophrenics. It was Dr. Harvey Ross
who introduced me to Anne Sippi, a young woman, hospitalized at a small
psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles. I was told by staff members that this woman
was hopeless and that nothing could be done to help her. Dr. Ross asked me to do
a consultation with Anne Sippi, who he had worked with for a considerable period
of time. He believed that she could not be successfully treated and was about to
recommend custodial care in a state hospital. I was the last stop it appears
before that happened. I had developed a reputation of dealing with the most
difficult population.
Anne Sippi had been sick, since childhood. She was
treated and hospitalized many times with no significant relief from the ravages
of her schizophrenic condition. She was violent much of the time and also
restrained more often than not, in these hospitals. She was a terrified human
being, when I met her. Her vocabulary had shrunk to several words. Her fear and
resulting violence persuaded hospital staff to stay away from her as much as
possible. In her terrified state, this woman, this human being, was left alone
to deal with the nightmare of her existence. My first contact with her was a
dynamic confrontation, which led me to believe that she was a very treatable
person.