Rinkel, Max, 1894-1966

Max Rinkel, 1894-1966, was a psychiatrist and consultant at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Boston State Hospital. He is probably most famous for his experiments with LSD and was the first to import the drug from Europe in 1949. His work also included research on insulin therapy and experiments which provided evidence that insanity could be caused by chemical disorders.

From the description of Papers, 1925-1966. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 231039372

Max Rinkel, M.D. (MR) was born in Neisse, Germany on August 18, 1894. His father was Karl Rinkel, a businessman, and his mother was Frieda Eisenberg, a concert singer. He graduated from the Royal Gymnasium in Neisse in 1914, studied briefly at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, in received his M.D. degree from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany in 1925.

After earning his medical degree, MR worked in Duisburg, and in 1930 he became director of the clinical and research laboratories at the Medical School Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases in Dusseldorf. In the spring of 1936, MR emigrated to the United States because he was invited by Bernhard Sachs, M.D., dean of American neurology, and because MR wished to escape Adolf Hitler's rise to power. MR married Wilma Luecke (1905-19??) of Hannover, Germany on October 15, 1936 in New York City. MR was naturalized in 1941, and WL was naturalized in 1944. No children were born of the marriage.

From 1936-45, MR worked as senior research associate in the Boston State Hospital's Research Division. Concurrently, from 1940-45 he was a civilian psychiatrist at the United States Induction Center in Boston. Beginning in 1948, MR was attending neuropsychiatrist at Cushing General Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Mass. In the 1950s, he was senior research associate at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital (unpaid). At the time of his death, MR was senior research associate and consultant at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and at Boston State Hospital.

The author of four books and more than 100 scientific papers, MR was perhaps most famous for his experiments with LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) . MR was the first to import the drug from Europe in 1949, and in one experiment he dispensed it to Brookline, Mass. artist Hyman Bloom. MR's work also included research on insulin therapy and experiments that provided evidence that insanity could be caused by chemical disorders.

MR was a past president of the Massachusetts Society for Research in Psychiatry and Neurology, medical director of the Manfred Sakel Foundation, a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, an member of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a diplomate of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry.

MR died of a heart attack in his office on June 9, 1966.

From the guide to the Papers, 1925-1966, (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.)