Frederick Peterson (neurologist)

Frederick Peterson (March 1, 1859 – July 9, 1938) was an American neurologist and poet. Peterson was at the forefront of psychoanalysis in the United States, publishing one of the first articles of Freud and Jung's theories of Free Association in 1909.

Peterson was born in Faribault, Minnesota. After graduating from the University of Buffalo, he attended the Universities of Vienna, Zurich, Strassburg and Gőttingen. Upon his return to the United States, he became a professor at the University of Buffalo in 1882. For the following decade he practiced as a neurologist in New York City. He spent 1893–1894 as a professor at the University of Vermont. In 1900 he was appointed president of the New York State Commission on Lunacy. From 1903 until his retirement, he served as a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. He was also a well known connoisseur and collector of Chinese paintings.

Peterson's major contributions to medical theory include editorial positions at:

*"The Journal of Nervous and Medical Diseases"
*"The New York Medical Journal"
*"Mental Diseases" (9th ed. 1920)
*"The American Textbook of Legal Medicine and Toxicology" (2nd ed. 1923)

In addition to his numerous medical writings, Peterson was an accoplished poet publishing "Poems and Swedish Translations" in 1883, "In the Shade of the Ygdrasil" in 1893, and "The Flutter of the Gold Leaf" (1922)

References

*"Encyclopaedia Americana"
*45th Annual Repot of Craig Colony, New York State
*"Psychoanalytic Pioneers" Franz Alexander, Samuel Eisenstein, Martin Grotjahn