Carl Whitaker

"Carl Whitaker was one of the founding generation of family therapists who broke the rules of the psychotherapeutic orthodoxies of the time, such as that therapy focused on a single client and was totally divorced from family life" "-Richard Simon (Goleman 1995)"

Personality & Style
Carl Whitaker had a reputation for his outrageous personality, "iconoclastic" style, charm and charisma (Nichols & Davis 2020; Goleman 1995). He once famously arm-wrestled the teenager of a family he was treating (Goleman 1995).

"Dr. Whitaker was often outrageous in what he would do as a therapist. He was a fearless and idiosyncratic spirit.""-Richard Simon (Goleman 1995)"

Early Career
Carl Whitaker was trained as an obstetrician and gynecologist when he began working at a psychiatric hospital in 1938 (Goleman 1995). During World War II, Whitaker worked as a therapist at the top-secret atomic bomb project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (Goleman 1995). Reportedly this is where he began to experiment with co-therapy.

Emory University
Whitaker was appointed chair of the university's department of psychiatry in 1946 (Nichols & Davis 2020). He maintained this position for 19 years. Abdicating his position when pressure was applied to make the department more psychoanalytic.

"Every marriage is a battle between two families struggling to reproduce themselves.""-Carl Whitaker (Goleman 1995)"

Atlanta Psychiatric Clinic
Carl Whitaker, Thomas Malone, John Warkentin, and Richard Felder left Emory University to found the Atlanta Psychiatric Clinic (Nichols & Davis 2020).

Retirement
Whitaker officially retired in the 1980s and devoted his time to sharing his knowledge at workshops and conventions (Nichols & Davis 2020).

Death
Whitaker died at age 83 in April 1995 of complications from a stroke (Goleman 1995).