Marianne Breslin
1918-2012
Marianne S. Breslin received her medical education in Germany, graduating from the Medical Academy of Duesseldorf in 1946. After a Residency in General Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Thoracic Surgery, she came to the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in 1951 under a Marshall Plan government fellowship.
After moving to North Carolina in the 1950s with her husband, Dr. Breslin received Psychiatric Residency training from the combined program at Dorothea Dix Hospital and North Carolina Memorial Hospital at the University of North Carolina (UNC). In 1960, she was offered a faculty position in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at UNC.
Other acitvities at UNC included:
- Assistant Administrator of the Adult Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic
- Supervision of Residents in Psychotherapy and Family Therapy
- Member of a subcommittee to study curriculum changes in the Residency training program
- Involved in research projects and in the Psychoanalytic training program
In 1968, Dr. Breslin resigned with the intention of entering private practice but instead accepted an invitation to join the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical School and was the first woman in the department.
From 1968 to 1986, she was involved in the following activites at Duke:
- Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Chief of the Division of Psychosomatic Medicine
- Psychiatric training programs for Residents and Mmedical Students in Psychosomatic Medicine
- Research in the area of personality traits in strokes and heart attacks in unresolved grief reactions in psychosomatic disorders and the application of family therapy to psychosomatic patients
- Service on many committees in the medical school
- Consultant to Comprehensive Cancer Research Program and the Pain Clinic, Watts Hospital, John Umstead Hospital, and Durham Veterans Hospital
Dr. Breslin received the Residents Teacher Award and other honors including:
- Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the North Carolina Psychiatric Association and the North Carolina District Branch
- President of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association (1979-1980)
- Fellow in the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, the American Psychosomatic Society, and many other organizations
- Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association
After her retirement from Duke University Medical School in 1988, Dr. Breslin had a private practice in General Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Psychoanalysis which she continued on a limited basis until 2008. She also continued as a consultant to the Veterans Hospital in Durham and the Social Security Disability.
Following a brief illness, Dr. Breslin passed away in 2012 at the age of 93.
Interview
This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Marianne S. Breslin on June 12, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry.