Robert Charles Powell, MD, PhD
After earning a bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences, with special distinction in the social sciences, from Shimer College (Illinois), a “Great Books” school, Dr. Powell earned doctorates in medicine and in history from Duke University (North Carolina), within its Behavioral Sciences Study Program (linguistic psychiatry & theoretical biology/ ethology) and its Medical Historian Training Program (European/ American history of science & of ideas).
During his graduate years, he earned the Josiah C. Trent Prize in the History of Medicine, from Duke University, in 1970, and the William Osler Medal, from the American Association for the History of Medicine, in 1971. In 1994, Dr. Powell was named “Psychiatrist of the Year,” by The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Illinois, and, in 1996, he was named an “Exemplary Psychiatrist” by the central office of The National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Following postgraduate work at the State University of New York/ Upstate Medical Center (Syracuse) (psychiatry/ neurology/ medicine), and at the Michael Reese Institute for Psychosomatic & Psychiatric Research (Chicago) (clinical research on adolescence), Dr. Powell earned certification by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He taught briefly at the medical schools of the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and Northwestern University (– Chicago).
His earliest writings concerned the development of holistic/ organismic theory in psychosomatic medicine, the concept of the subliminal/ subconscious, and the invention of clinical pastoral chaplaincy. His earliest research coordination concerned lithium and premenstrual syndrome.
Having earlier hitch-hiked throughout the British Isles, France, and Italy, he was among the last solo travelers on the overland trail from Istanbul to Kabul to Kathmandu – eventually wandering throughout Iran, India, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma).
In late 1998, he was “rediscovered” by the clinical pastoral chaplaincy movement, and once again began contributing to its history, giving major presentations in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2012, and 2025, as well as providing relevant essays during the years between and since.
In private practice for 34 years -- followed by public practice since late 2013 -- he generally treated mixed psychiatric/ neurologic/ endocrinologic disorders in all age groups. During much of that time, he also worked, as a civilian medical officer, with military active duty personnel, retirees, and dependents, on whatever problems with which they presented, without assuming these to have emotional etiology. With sustained curiosity, he explored, among other things, how non-psychiatric factors masquerade as psychiatric disorders, how inflammatory and circulatory factors impact the whole body (including the brain), and how answers to five short questions might suggest a person’s level of ego organization.
He and his wife, Pat, have a blended family of two sons, one daughter (now deceased), and four grandchildren. In November 2013, they moved from the Chicago Northshore to the Long Island Northshore. In October 2016, they began moving to the Boston Northshore, to be closer to their children and grandchildren.
Historically, Dr. Powell’s most popular booklet has been Anton T. Boisen (1876-1965): “Breaking an Opening in the Wall between Religion and Medicine,” 1976; 2nd ed., greatly expanded, 2021. His 2nd most popular booklet has been C.P.E. [Clinical Pastoral Education]: Fifty Years of Learning, through Supervised Encounter with “Living Human Documents,” 1975; 2nd ed., greatly expanded, 2021. Historically, his 3rd most popular booklet has been When Death Is Not Theoretical: The Readiness of the Music Group ‘Queen’ for Living with Freddie Mercury’s Dying, 2014; 2nd ed., greatly expanded, 2018. His 4th most popular booklet has been Differentiation of Moods as a Reflection of Ego Organization and Personality Style: Listening Very, Very Closely as Patients Answer Only Five Questions, 2017; clinical trainees especially have appreciated this booklet.
His most popular article by far is “Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902-1959) and a Holistic Approach to Psychosomatic Problems. I. The Rise and Fall of a Medical Philosophy,” Psychiatric Quarterly 49: 133 -152, 1977 (the 1st ed. is available online through ResearchGate; the 2nd ed. is not). His 2nd most popular article is “The ‘Subliminal’ versus the ‘Subconscious’ in the American Acceptance of Psychoanalysis, 1906-1910,” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 15: 155-165, 1979; revised & updated as a chapter in Freudian Concepts in America: The Role of Psychical Research in Preparing the Way: 1904-1934, 2015. His 3rd most popular article is "Anton T. Boisen's 'Psychiatric Examination: Content of Thought (1925-31): An Attempt to Grasp the Meaning of Mental Disorder," Psychiatry 40:369-375, 1977. An article he most had wished had had wider availability is “Psychosomatic Aspects of Affect in Psychoanalytic Theory, 1950-1970,” invited review essay, The American Academy of Psychoanalysis Forum 23 (4): 5-8, 1979. Of the above noted articles, the first, third, and fourth will be republished in expanded editions during late 2021.
In mid-2021, a number of his clinical studies were collected in one teaching volume:
Listening Closely to Patients: without Jumping to Conclusions {essays on practicing psychiatry}
[ > linguistic/ cognitive dynamic psychiatry meets neurologic/ nutritional/ endocrinologic psychobiology < ]
In 2021-2022-, thirty-nine essays (1969-2017) plus one widely-cited book (Healing and Wholeness ... , 1974; 347 pages) were prepared for re-publication across the next several years in seven inexpensive volumes – in expanded and revised form – after at least ten of his published writings had appeared on the internet without authorization (one very detailed article was submitted in 2020 under someone else's name as a medical dissertation). Most of these studies touch upon “psychosomatic" medicine and "clinical pastoral" care, counseling, and/ or psychotherapy. He stands as a de facto biographer of Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902-1959), Anton Theophilus Boisen (1876-1965), Elwood Ernest Worcester (1862-1940), James Hervey Hyslop (1894-1920), and Ethel Phelps Stokes Hoyt (1876-1952).
[the first of the seven volumes is noted at
https://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Pastoral-Training-Education-Transformation/dp/1957994010/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1649320379&sr=1-1&asin=B09XC3H83V&revisionId=d3edcd90&format=1&depth=1 ]
[the second of the seven volumes is noted at
https://www.amazon.com/1876-1965-Breaking-Opening-Religion-Medicine/dp/1957994045/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&asin=1957994045&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1]
[the third of the seven volumes is noted at
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G257J1TG?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520
In 2026, a much expanded edition of his monograph
on anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and pro-circulatory pentoxifylline will be published -- along
with a smaller, related monograph on "
pentoxifylline and the brain".
A psychiatry research group in Egypt integrated data from my long draft manuscript “Pentoxifylline & the Brain” into their review article:
Ramzi A, Maya S, Balousha N, Amin M, ** Powell RC **, Shiha MR. "Effects of
the anti-inflammatory pentoxifylline on psychiatric and neuropsychiatric conditions: Exploring various off-label utilities with meta-analyses”. Inflammopharmacol, Jan 2025 [analyses data on use, with a good safety profile, of pentoxifylline in severe depression, vascular cognitive impairment, bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia, & autism; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11799099/ [PubMed Central lists the many references including my 2015 bibliography on pentoxifylline
use in general medicine; readership of this article has grown rapidly – with >328 full manuscript readings on ResearchGate within 8 months.
>> Powell (2015) demonstrated via charts that “after pentoxifylline went
off-patent in the United States in 1998 the supposedly more prestigious journals lost interest – while the generally non-Anglo-American journals retained or gained interest”. Ramzi et al (2025), starting with Powell’s data, demonstrated via distinctive graphs that “Despite the decline in PTX [pentoxifylline] studies after 1997, research on NPS [neuropsychiatric symptoms] has continued to account for around 11% of all PTX publications, indicating enduring interest in this domain”. “ This item’s Research Interest score” in Oct 2025 is “higher than 55% of … items on ResearchGate,” “higher than 89% of … items published in 2025.”
“higher than 52% of … items related to General Medicine.”
“higher than 50% of … items related to Psychiatry,"
“higher than 46% of … items related to Neurology.”
psychosomatic somatopsychic consultation-liaison
percepts concepts suffering bewildered vulnerable
"... Powell, the leading historian of psychosomatic medicine." [John C. Burnham, Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst & Physician, 1983, p.xv]
"... Powell continued to function on his own authority as
the preeminent historian of the clinical pastoral movement, and remains so today. He is without peer in this self-assumed role." [Raymond J. Lawrence, Recovery of Soul ..., 2017, p.132]
Addendum: (autobiography, forthcoming someday:)
“Only I Escaped Alone to Tell Thee”:
A Memoir from the 1950s through the 2020s
(The Life & Times of a
Wondering, Wandering, Writing Doctor)
a number of appendices will be included after the main text:
>> “Thelma & Bob”: My Parents’ Life Together
[Thelma Bibler Powell (1922-2015) &
Robert Edwin Powell (1921-1984)]
>> 9-11’s Effect (2001) on a Quiet US Military Base
>> Obtaining Official Clearance (2010) for Saudi Arabia
>> Foreign Wanderings [including
“The Asian Overland Trail”/ “The Hippie Trail” /
"The Road to Kathmandu" – plus adventures
further east – the 1960s thru the 1980s]
>> Focusing on the Differentness of
a Great Books School
>> Toward a Semiotic Approach to History:
Behavioral Analysis in the Diachronic Dimension
>> Medical Notes on the Older Sister I Never Met
[1st recorded live birth (1942) of a child with
**homozygous ** hereditary
hemorrhagic telangiectasia/ HHT].
Elizabeth Anne Powell ("patient EAP" in the
medical articles) lived 11 weeks.
>> Medical Education & Care before 1980
synchronic (with time) (psychology/ sociology)
diachronic (through time) (history/ ethology)
Greece Turkey Iran Afghanistan Pakistan
India Nepal Sri Lanka Myanmar/ Burma Thailand
Hong Kong Macao Taiwan Japan
&&&&&
Dr. Powell’s cover letter was added to Grok AI & to Gemini AI in November 2025.
https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1994849531226460217
https://gemini.google.com/app/f04378e470c40b1c
&&&&&
Others’ non-Amazon Comments about
Doctor Powell’s Writings
[Still active as a clinician and as an author, Dr. Powell has seven more manuscripts in final preparation for publication during 2026.]
>Burnham, John C.: Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst and Physician, 1983, p.xv: “… Powell, the leading historian of psychosomatic medicine ….”;
>Lawrence, Raymond J.: Recovery of Soul… 2017, p.132: “… Powell continued to function on his own authority as the preeminent historian of the clinical pastoral movement, and remains so today. He is without peer in this self-assumed role.”
1973, “The ‘Subliminal’ versus the ‘Subconscious’ in the American Acceptance of Psychoanalysis, 1906-1910.” presented before the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference on the History of Medicine & the Biological Sciences, Princeton, NJ, March 1974; presented as The Fishbein Lecture before The Division of the Social Sciences, The University of Chicago, 27 Sept 1976. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 15: 155-165, 1979; abstract on the internet at www.pubmed.gov;
PubMed.gov & Google Scholar noted that as of Jun 2025, it has been cited by 18 other articles; Grok, scanning also Semantic Scholar & CrossRef, in Oct 2025 noted 25 unique citations since 1979 – 5 in 2021-2025. cited in Subliminal Literature: Bibliography and Review https://www.progressiveawareness.org/research_desk_reference/Peripheral_Desk_Reference_P.html ; a 2nd, revised edition = “Part Two” of Freudian Concepts ….
research cited extensively by other scholars; among the more insightful comments:
> Kelly, Edward F. et al: Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. chapter by Crabtree, Adam. ftn, p.301. re a key question of which 1886 article influenced Wm. James’ notion of the subconscious, 7 authors’ conclusions are discarded & Powell’s is accepted.)
> Alvarado, Carlos S.: Frederic W. H. Myers, Psychical Research and Psychology …. J Soc Psychical Res. 2009; 73(3)(896):150-170, p.160 [“Studies of how Myers influenced others are needed. An Interesting one is Powell's (1979) discussion …”]
> Knoper, Randall: Literary Neurophysiology …, NY: Oxford Univ Press, 2021. ftn, p.250 [“helps to clarify … the battle between those who attributed behavioral and unconscious mentation to brain physiology and those who attributed them to an integrated and conscious second self ….”]
[this essay includes much original research about the life & work of the Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester (1862-1940). [appears to be the 2nd most cited Powell article]
1974, Healing and Wholeness: Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902-59) and an ExtraMedical Origin of the American Psychosomatic Movement, 1906-36, doctoral (PhD) dissertation, ii+347pp. Dept. of History, Duke University, 26 April 1974. Ann Arbor: [University Microfilms>] ProQuest (order# AAT 7502415) (1st 18 pages, with footnotes, can be previewed here: https://www.proquest.com/openview/2a703909a7278d6a271f05c34a7cc91c/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y ; National Library of Medicine ID: 7808493; call #: WZ 100 D899P 1974F. cited in “One Hundred First Critical Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (to January 1976).” Isis [The History of Science Society].67(5): section, “Contemporary: Sciences of Man, Medicine,” p.147; cited in Erlen, Jonathan: The History of the Health Care Sciences and Health Care: 1700-1980: A Selective Annotated Bibliography. NY: Garland Reference Library 1984, p.809.
> Google search for “American Psychosomatic Movement” > 600+ references to my writings. > Grok & Gemini in Nov 2025 could not find any use of that phrase prior to Powell’s introduction of it in 1974.
> someone unknown to me actually posted in November 2020 the entire seven-page “Introduction” to Healing and Wholeness … – minus the 11 original footnotes – on the internet: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3657153744?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1 ; it is labeled as an appreciative review of Dunbar’s Mind and Body: Psychosomatic Medicine.
(per WorldCat.org, 01 Aug 2021, 19 libraries hold copies of the dissertation). (research cited extensively by other scholars, eg:
> Burnham, John C.: Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst and Physician. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983, pp.xv n, 86 n, 132-134, 154-155 [“Powell, the leading historian of psychosomatic medicine ….”];
> Stokes, Allison: Ministry After Freud. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1985, pp.73-74, 86, 197, 201-203, 206 [“… scholarly research and analysis of the highest order,” p.xviii];
> Hyrkäs, Eve-Riina: Psychosomatic Connections: Mind-Body Histories …; PhD diss, Oulu, FL: Univ. of Oulu, 2022, pp.16-17, 64, 81 [uses Powell’s work to structure her doctoral study of “grounded meanings”; “A deep understanding of psychosomatics requires the researcher to pay attention to the non-medical personae of doctors …,” p.81;
> George, Carol V.R.: God's Salesman: Norman Vincent Peale and the Power of Positive Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, pp.8, 12, 89;
> Severino, Sally K & Liew, Richard, eds: Pastoral Care of the Mentally Disabled: New York: Haworth Press, 1994, pp.58-59;
> Gifford, Sanford. The Emmanuel Movement: The Origins of Group Treatment and The Assault on Lay Psychotherapy. Boston: Harvard University Press, for The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 1997, p.107 [“Powell’s brilliant dissertation … ,” p.108];
> Hart, Curt. J Relig Health. 2010; 49:536–546 [“Two of the three best histories of the origins of the clinical pastoral movement have been written by psychiatrists Robert Powell and Sanford Gifford.”; p.539.]);
> McGovern, Constance. American National Biography. 2000, “The most complete assessment of her [Dunbar’s] work is Robert C. Powell, "Healing and Wholeness ….”.
** H & W, p.360: “this became somewhat of a handbook on the broad subject of ‘emotion’.” ** In addition to original research re the life & work of Dr. Helen Flanders Dunbar as well as that of the life & work of the Rev. Dr. Anton Theophilus Boisen (1876-1965), the dissertation includes original research re the life & work of the Rev. Dr. Elwood Ernest Worcester (1862-1940), founder of the Emmanuel Movement, & his associate, the Rev. Dr. Samuel McComb (1864-1938); that latter research was spun off as ~~~ Elwood Worcester and The Emmanuel Movement: Physician of the Whole Man, of the Soul as Well as of the Body; a 67-page booklet available on Amazon through Kindle e-books & KDP Print, August 2018.
> Franzen, David. “Foreword” to Healing and Wholeness … 2nd edition: “Powell’s biography of Worcester is perhaps the best researched and written work on Worcester to date.”
> Smith, Brian Dean. “For a thoughtful discussion of higher criticism and Worcester’s intellectual development see Robert Powell ‘Healing and Wholeness …’.” The Moral Treatment of Psychological Disorder …,1989. ~~~
2022, Healing & Wholeness, 2nd ed, revised & expanded; content increased by 12%; “Specific “Index of Psychoanalytic Concepts” & “General Index of Names & Concepts” added.
> emailed comment: “Holy cow! This revision is really extraordinary. Your scope and organization of the materials is invaluable.”
> “Records of The American Psychosomatic Society” “The Committee, headed by Dr. Helen Flanders Dunbar, published a first volume in 1935, titled Emotions and Bodily Changes: A Survey of the Literature on Psychosomatic Interrelationships. According to R.C. Powell [1974] … this work quite literally launched the American psychosomatic movement’.”; http://psych-history.weill.cornell.edu/pdf/American_Psychosomatic_Society_Records.pdf
a rare historical article on the Joint Committee: this is the ONLY article on the committee picked up by Google.
republished, 2021, 2nd edition in Clinical Pastoral Training, Education, & Transformation ….
1976, “Anton T. Boisen's ‘Psychiatric Examination: Content of Thought’ (c.1925-31): An Attempt to Grasp the Meaning of Mental Disorder,” Psychiatry 40: 369-375, 1977;
> Noll, Richard. “Feeling and Smelling Psychosis: American Alienism, Psychiatry, Prodromes and the Limits of ‘Category Work’ .” History of Human Science 31(2):22-41, 2018, cites Powell and then notes that Boisen created one of the first forms for rating psychotic symptoms – thus helping to transform American psychiatry into a more scientific endeavor. abstract on the internet at www.pubmed.gov ; [outlines Boisen’s decades-long intellectual relationship with Harry Stack Sullivan, MD] on the internet at
https://archive.org/details/sim_psychiatry_1977-11_40_4/page/368/mode/2up?q=powell on the internet at
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00332747.1977.11023950 ; on the internet (fee) at
https://www.proquest.com/openview/de76bb81debaa0b176641f1518e7151d/1.pdf?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=1816654 see 6 citations in Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&hl=en&cites=16143386626254896225
2021, republished in Boisen: Clinician …
[a prominent theologian who functioned as a sociologist/ psychologist, “inventing” clinical pastoral chaplaincy]
[appears to be the 3rd most cited Powell article]
1979, “Psychosomatic Aspects of Affect in Psychoanalytic Theory, 1950-1970.” invited review essay. [The American] Academy [of Psychoanalysis] Forum 23 (4): 5-8, 1979.
> [George L. Engel, MD (1913-99), personal letter dated 25 September 1979: “It is always interesting to have someone else put one’s work in perspective – especially since, with the passage of time, one all too easily becomes confused about the order of development of one’s own ideas. … So … I found your presentation most interesting and informative.” Engel’s commentary provided some reassurance that I had untangled his arguments correctly.] to be republished in Psychosomatic Healing ….