Helen Flanders Dunbar

Helen Flanders Dunbar — later known as H. Flanders Dunbar — is an important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine and psychobiology, as well as being an important advocate of physicians and clergy co-operating in their efforts to care for the sick. She viewed the patient as a combination of the psyche and soma, body and soul. Both needed to be treated in order to treat a patient efficiently. Dunbar received degrees in mathematics, psychology, theology, philosophy, and medicine. Dunbar founded the American Psychosomatic Society in 1942 and was the first editor of its journal. In addition to running several other committees committed to treating the whole patient, Dunbar wrote and distributed information for public health, involving child development and advocating for mental health care after World War II.