A Passage

[Above photo:  My parents at home at Merrimont on Mercer Island outside of Seattle, circa 1948.]

31 August 2022

My dear friend of many years, Ed Levin, died peacefully at home yesterday. Prostate cancer, which was misdiagnosed as “benign” 6 months ago, had spread throughout his body. Still, his death was a surprise to me, as I expected to see him in a couple of months when I go to California. Wishful denial, it turns out, although his wife and loving companion, Robin, said everyone was caught off-guard, expecting him to continue to be available for lively discussions for many more months.

I first met Ed in 1980. He was a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist who had lobbied for an adolescent inpatient service at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley. [Because of the high quality of teachers and supervisors in the East Bay community, Herrick had an excellent psychiatry residency training program at that time, which was rather unusual outside of a university setting.]  I was the first medical director of the adolescent unit.

Ed was a remarkable convener of people. He initiated our child study group, which met monthly for supper and two hours of lively discussion of cases and consultation issues for many years [It continues.]. He was the chair of the Mentorship Committee of the regional child psychiatry organization, encouraging, assisting, and welcoming child psychiatrists in training and those newly-minted into the community. He chaired the Continuing Medical Education Committee for psychiatry at Alta Bates Hospital for many years, bringing national quality experts to speak at Grand Rounds three times per month. He even formed a retirees’ luncheon group, a mixed gathering from many disciplines, although he never actually retired.

On a more personal level, Ed and I discussed difficult cases. We happily socialized together with our wives. We had a call coverage group and met regularly for lunch to coordinate that. He prescribed marijuana for me when the chemotherapy for my lung cancer made eating impossible. He even screened a new romantic interest for me after my divorce: “What are your intentions with my friend George?” She passed with flying colors.

Ed was a tireless crusader for quality in our profession, hounding the leadership of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), especially when they bowed too low to Big Pharma. He published a number of articles in our field, including one demonstrating the superiority of a developmental approach, versus the reflexive use of medication(s), when helping disruptive, traumatized children and teens in residential care gain self-control.  Noticing some adolescents in his practice with anxiety about the risk of nuclear annihilation during the dark days of the Cold War, Ed started a committee to study and discuss the same at AACAP.

In recent years he served as a senior consultant for difficult cases to other psychiatrists in the community and took great pleasure in teaching and supervising clinical psychology graduate students at the Wright Institute in Berkeley.

In summation, and knowing that it will be inadequate, Ed was a kind, loving, loyal, smart, curious, principled, and tenacious man, an excellent friend and a valued colleague for me over many years. I shall miss him regularly.

Pause.

I lunched with a friend near the Portland waterfront on Sunday. We noticed two immense cruise ships unloading at piers. One was 990 feet in length, the other was 947 feet. The superstructures were staggering. The appeal of being trapped in a luxury hotel, afloat, for a week or more is minimal for me. It is worse than traveling the world, moving from fancy hotel to fancy hotel, insulated from the people and cultures against which one is supposedly there to rub. Add covid, norovirus, too many desserts, massive pollution, and careless captains and such a trip seems closer to hell than heaven.  This would be different from a small-boat river or canal cruise in Europe, for example, where you can disembark and walk or ride a bike along the towpath and into town.

I had great luck at the University of Southern Maine Glickman Library last Friday. It appears to provide me with full access to many of the major journals I want to search, retrieving interesting and topical papers for my students.   I’m formulating a two-week child and adolescent training program for psychologists, complete with practicum, that I’ll lead in Thailand in January/February.

I plan to make my visit to Thailand coincide with the seating of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, Joe Biden’s soaring popularity ratings as people allow themselves to recognize what he has done for the country and the working classes, and DT’s indictment, if not trial, for obstruction of justice and sedition. What did he plan to do with the documents? Sell them to the highest bidder, I’d guess, as making money for himself is never far from his intentions.