Syz, Hans C.

Hans Caspar Syz, M.D., was born on August 1, 1894, in Zürich, Switzerland, to John and Clara Schindler Syz. He studied medicine at universities in Zürich, Munich and Geneva. He became certified to practice medicine at Zürich and received his doctoral degree through the Institute of Anatomical Pathology at the University of Geneva in 1921. While working as an assistant physician at the University Hospital of Zürich (1920-1921), he specialized in internal medicine and psychiatry. He became interested in psychoanalysis while an analysand of Oskar Pfister in Switzerland. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1921 and obtained U.S. citizenship in 1929. Although the United States remained his primary residence, he maintained close personal, professional and business contacts in Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy.

Under Adolf Meyer, Syz began work at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1922. He was engaged in both clinical work and research in experimental psychology and taught at the Johns Hopkins Medical School. Here Syz met Trigant Burrow, initiating a long friendship and intellectual collaboration. Burrow, who had studied with Carl Jung and would serve as president of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1925-1926), held an adjunct position at Johns Hopkins at the time.

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