Background
Abramson, Harold Alexander was born on November 27, 1899 in New York City. Son of F. Samuel and M. Rose (Richard) Abramson.
educator physician psychiatrist
Abramson, Harold Alexander was born on November 27, 1899 in New York City. Son of F. Samuel and M. Rose (Richard) Abramson.
Abramson graduated from Columbia College in 1919, receiving an Doctor of Medicine
He played a significant role in Central Intelligence Agency"s MKULTRA program to investigate the military applications of LSD. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1923. He specialized in allergy medicine and pediatrics. He joined the staff at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in 1941, cultivating an interest in asthma and pulmonary disease, and where he was the first ever to use aerosolized penicillin.
He stayed at Mount Sinai until 1959.
In 1953 Abramson proposed an $85,000 study to the Central Intelligence Agency on the effects of LSD on unwitting hospital patients. This was the same year that the MKULTRA program was established.
Funding for the project was funneled through the Macy Foundation. Abramson was an attending physician in connection with the tragic (and allegedly LSD-induced) apparent suicide of Frank Olson, a microbiologist who was covertly given LSD as part of the Central Intelligence Agency"s psychotropic drug research.
Starting in 1954, Abramson published a series of articles on the effects of LSD on Siamese fighting fish.
(The Cybernetics Group, originally named The Conference on Feedback Mechanisms in Biology and the Social Sciences, was started in 1946). He was also an organizer of the 6 international LSD conferences, the first being held in 1959. In 1967, he published the book The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy and Alcoholism.
Another Harold Abramson (no middle initial), also born in 1899, attended Columbia College around the same time.
Harold A. Abramson graduated from Columbia College in 1919, received his Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1923 and died in 1980. The other Harold Abramson received his Bachelor in 1920, his Doctor of Medicine in 1924 and his Master of Arts in Psychology in 1932 all from Columbia.
Harold Abramson also specialized in pediatrics. He died in 1974.
Served in world wars I and World War II Fellow American Psychiatric Association, New York Academy of Medicine, American College Allergists (distinguished), American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy Science, American Academy Allergists, American College of Chest Physicians. Member American Pysiol.
Society, American Society Biological Chemists, New York County Medical Society, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Alpha Omega Alpha, Epsilon Chirurgical
Married Barbara H. Smith, June 26, 1933 (divorced). Married second, Virginia Tenney, 1955. Children: Alexandra Howland (Mistress Atilla Orhun), Harold Alexander, Barbara Howland (Mistress Henry A. Vanderploeg), Howland Wilson.