Weisskopf-Joelson, Edith, 1910-1983

Edith Weisskopf-Joelson was a native of Vienna, Austria, and a refugee from Hitler's war on Jews when she emigrated to the United States in 1939, having earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of Vienna. She pursued her career in psychology at several prominent universities, including Briarcliff College in New York, Indiana University, Purdue and Duke universities, and finally the University of Georgia. She also served as a clinical consultant for the state of Indiana. While teaching at Purdue University, Weisskopf-Joelson contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to the hospital for treatment during 1962-1964. During this time she began experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia. Despite this development, she taught at St. Mary-in-the-Woods College in Terre Haute for one year. Weisskopf-Joelson kept a diary of her madness and that diary became a book, Father, Have I Kept My Promise?, published posthumously in 1988 by Purdue University. After her release from a mental hospital in 1966, she returned to teaching and continued her distinguished academic career. Weisskopf-Joelson retired from the University of Georgia in 1978 and died in 1983 of cardiac arrest.