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This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Marianne S. Breslin on June 12, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry.
Duration: 01:57:33
Dr. Marianne S. Breslin discusses her background; her father's occupation as a horse breeder in Germany; Germany's political climate affecting her family; Nazi influence in her town; anti-Nazi sentiment after the war; extreme changes in family due to the war and politics; going to medical school in 1941; World War II's impact on her life; becoming a surgeon; her fellowship to go to the United States; coming to the United States (New York); meeting her husband; moving to Chapel Hill; complications of the fellowship program; working at Dorothea Dix Hospital as chief of the female service; choosing to change to psychiatry over surgery; Dr. Ewald Busse persuading her to come to Duke's Department of Psychiatry; heading the Division of Psychosomatic Medicine in Duke's Department of Psychiatry; other people in the department; being the first female in the Adult Psychiatry Department; the positive treatment she received as the only female; being busy; raising a large family alone; her experience with a grateful patient; psychosomatic medicine; the current trend toward medications in the field of psychiatry; Dr. Anna Friedman; Dr. Ruby Wilson; the end of clinical psychiatric nurse position; committees upon which she served in the medical center; her presidency of the North Carolina Neuropsychiatric Society; other people in other divisions in the department; the end of the Division of Psychosomatic Medicine after her retirement; her retirement; the positive aspects and accomplishments of the division; working with a patient who was afraid to fly; the death of her two husbands; her children; psychiatry in Germany; her initial interest in psychosomatic medicine; her popularity; passing the state boards in North Carolina; being the only foreigner to pass the boards in her group; taking the boards; other exams necessary to practice in the United States; her family; and social workers in Duke's Department of Psychiatry. The transcription of this interview was made possible by a grant from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation. Includes 2 master and 2 use CDs.