Hans Steiner, MD, emeritus prof of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, died Oct. 17 successful Palo Alto astatine the property of 76. He is remembered for his wide-ranging probe connected kid and teen psychiatry, emotion of writing, and generosity successful mentoring younger psychiatrists.
Over his four-decade vocation astatine Stanford Medicine, Steiner made contributions to galore fields, including eating disorders, juvenile delinquency, trauma, sports science and forensic psychiatry. He was funny successful galore aspects of property development, specified arsenic defence styles — the unconscious mechanisms we usage to trim the interaction of unwelcome realities. He developed a 71-item questionnaire, known arsenic the effect valuation measure, oregon REM-71, to measure specified styles.
“Hans Steiner made a profound and lasting interaction connected the tract of kid and teen psychiatry,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine. “His extended studies connected aggression, antisocial behaviour and the psychopathologies associated with trauma person helped countless patients. And his warmth, wit and optimism touched everyone astir him.”
In his objective practice, Steiner believed that psychiatric attraction should beryllium tailored to the developmental needs of each patient, taking into relationship societal discourse and the patient’s age, science and biology.
“His patients loved him,” said Richard Shaw, MD, a prof of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “He had immoderate patients who started successful adolescence that helium saw to adulthood. He took patients from the extent of despair and pathology to realizing their ambitions arsenic people.”
Steiner ever had different radical successful caput and took galore young psychiatrists nether his wing, guiding them successful their probe and their careers, his colleagues said.
“As a mentor, helium was truly capable to assistance radical spot the qualities and imaginable that they had earlier they were adjacent alert of them,” Shaw said. “His assurance and content successful his mentees helped the radical astir him execute things that whitethorn not person been imaginable without his influence.”
“Steiner was an exemplary mentor, ever identifying opportunities for trainees to turn wrong and recognize the tract of kid and teen psychiatry,” said Victor Carrion, MD, the John A. Turner, MD, Endowed Professor for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and vice-chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “He mentored a fig of our module and helped physique the Division of Child Psychiatry and Development into what it is today.”
Steiner besides nurtured a lifelong passionateness for writing, which helium did successful German and English. He wrote poetry, abbreviated stories and novels, successful summation to non-academic books connected psychiatry. In 2008, helium co-founded the Pegasus Physician Writers radical astatine Stanford Medicine to promote physicians and aesculapian students to make their originative penning skills, which helium believed would marque them amended doctors.
“I find that my penning and my psychiatric signifier mesh beautifully,” Steiner wrote connected his website. “As I assistance patients make and reshape the communicative of their lives, I employment akin skills erstwhile I constitute astir fictional and non-fictional characters. My signifier and my originative penning basal successful a constant, refreshing dialectic which invigorates both.”
From Vienna to Palo Alto
Steiner was calved connected June 27, 1946, successful Vienna, Austria, a twelvemonth aft the extremity of World War II. He grew up successful a working-class household that struggled to marque ends conscionable arsenic Austria rebuilt itself aft the war. In 1965, helium became the archetypal successful his household to be university, graduating from the University of Vienna with a doc of medicine grade successful 1972.
In his archetypal twelvemonth astatine the university, helium met his wife, Judith, an American traveling successful Europe, connected a unsighted date. They were joined successful 1967.
He completed residencies astatine SUNY Upstate Medical Center successful Syracuse, New York, and the University of Michigan successful Ann Arbor. In 1978, Steiner was hired arsenic the adjunct manager of psychosomatic inpatient work astatine Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, which fulfilled his wife’s privation to instrumentality to the San Francisco Bay Area. He joined the Stanford School of Medicine module successful 1981 arsenic objective adjunct prof of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
During his career, Steiner authored and edited much than 500 articles, abstracts, reviews and books. He received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 9 times and was a Lifetime Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
He became an emeritus prof successful 2009, but remained progressive successful research, diligent attraction and his galore penning projects. In 2011, helium was named the manager of Stanford Medicine’s Program successful Psychiatry and the Law, which provides forensic evaluations for ineligible purposes, specified arsenic competency to basal proceedings and intelligence states.
In 2017, helium published Your Secret Mind, with co-author Rebecca Hall, a aesculapian writer and erstwhile probe adjunct successful his lab. The publication helped readers recognize and summation entree to their unconscious mind, particularly done creativity. It stemmed from a fashionable people helium taught for galore years to undergraduates and adults.
Steiner’s seemingly indefatigable vigor for his galore endeavors was made imaginable by his disciplined clip management, his woman said. His strategy was to dedicate 1 time a week to each task — 1 time for consultations, 1 time helping radical with their papers and truthful on.
Steiner’s begetter had been a swimming coach, and Steiner was ever athletic. He enjoyed skiing, biking and playing tennis. His involvement successful sports besides extended to studying the intelligence wellness of athletes.
In his past years, Steiner was moving connected a novel, his second. (His archetypal was written successful German erstwhile helium was a aesculapian pupil and typed by his woman connected a Smith Corona portable typewriter.) His unfinished 2nd caller was based connected the experiences of his household successful post-war Vienna, the metropolis that would ever correspond location to him.
In his ain words, Steiner described however his younker influenced his life’s work. “From these little sketches of my aboriginal life, 1 easy tin recognize however I became funny successful helping youth, athletes, radical successful each kinds of trouble, with fewer resources, and however I to this time relish teaching arsenic a instrumentality to bring guardant successful clip the contented and cognition of past generations,” helium wrote.
In summation to his wife, Steiner is survived by his sister, Britta Schmid; his 3 children: Remy, Hans-Christoph and Joshua; and 4 grandsons.
English (US)