Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Cottage

One of the 20th century's leading psychiatrists, German-born Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (1889-1957), lived and worked in this house from 1936 until the final years of her life. The house was a part of mental hospital called Chestnut Lodge, which built the house in 1936 (a fire destroyed the Lodge in 2009). Fromm-Reichmann pioneered the treatment of schizophrenia and her successful work at the hospital became known around the world. Her book, Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy (published in 1950), dissimated her psychotherapy treatment techniques and became standard reading for psychiatrists in training. For its association with Fromm-Reichmann and Chestnut Lodge, the house was designated a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann was born to a Jewish family in Karlsruhe, Germany on October 23, 1889. As a young woman, she studied medicine at the University of Konigsberg, focusing on neuorology and war-related brain injuries. She graduated in 1914 and during World War II, served as director of the university's hospital to treat soldiers with brain injuries. After the war, she trained under a physician who used psychotherapy in Dresden and then enrolled at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute in 1923-1924. She also established a private clinic where she met and in 1926 married her husband, Erich Fromm, who was also a psychiatrist. They became separated for five years after Erich went to Switzerland to get treated for tuberculosis in 1930. The emergence of Hitler forced Fromm-Reichmann to go to Alsace-Lorraine in 1933 and then to Palestine in 1934. She then immigrated to America in 1935 to reunite with Erich in New York City, where he had arrived a year before. They ended their marriage but remained friends.

Chestnut Lodge was established by Ernest Bullard in 1910. After he died in 1931, his son, Dexter Bullard, became director. Dexter grew up here and was also a psychiatrist. He hired Fromm-Reichmann in 1936 after she worked there for two months as a replacement for another psychiatrist. That year, she, Dexter, and another psychiatrist founded the Washington-Baltimore Psychoanalytic Institute, which was a post-graduate school for mental health professionals. She also taught at the Washington School of Psychiatry.

Underlying her treatment philosophy was the belief that psychoanalytic methods, such as clinical dialogue, could treat schizophrenic patients, regardless of the severity of the illness. She espoused the notion that interpersonal psychiatry was effective in treating mental illness instead of somatic treatments, which included shock therapy and lobotomy. Differing from other psychoanalysts, she believed that patients should be given respect and lead the therapy sessions, and she also played close attention to non-verbal communication. Practices using force, such as sedation, were rarely used at the Lodge. The Lodge earned a reputation around the country and other mental health institutions adopted its methods. It treated more severe mentally ill patients with intense psychotherapy than those other facilities.

In 1953, Fromm-Reichmann received the Adolf Meyer Award from the Association for the Improvement of Mental Hospitals. Two years later she was invited to spend a year sabbatical at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, California where she continued to study non-verbal communication. She returned to the Lodge in 1956 but she began to suffer from hereditary deafness and gradually stepped back from teaching and lecturing. She died on April 28, 1957 in the house from acute coronary thrombosis. She was 67.

Chestnut Lodge continued to operate until 1999. Two years earlier, CPC Health acquired it but eventually went bankrupt and the Lodge closed as a result. CPC Health sold it to a school in 2001 but was purchased two years later by development company that planned to convert the Lodge building into housing. The 2008 recession and the fire prevented that from happening. A local non-profit organization, Peerless Rockville, acquired the house in 2009 to preserve it and its contents. It appears the house is used for a variety of events.

"Dexter M. Bullard, a Pioneer in Psychoanalysis Treatment." The New York Times. October 8, 1981. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/08/obituaries/dexter-m-bullard-a-pioneer-in-psychoanalysis-treatment.html.

"Fromm-Reichmann, Frieda." Biographical Archive of Psychiatry. Accessed May 17, 2023. https://biapsy.de/index.php/en/9-biographien-a-z/81-fromm-reichmann-frieda-e.

Salvatore, Susan Cianci. "Frieda Fromm-Reichmann." National Park Service - National Historic Landmark Nomination Form. January 13, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/upload/2020-November-Fromm-Reichmann-nom-508-FINAL-ADV-BOARD.pdf.