Interview with Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, M.D., 2021

Scope and content:

Dr. Hirschfeld shares memories about his education and career, the way he got involved in the 1989 State Department psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R., the methodological approach to the patient interviews, the range of findings of his sub-team # 3 in Leningrad, and his general impressions of the Soviet Union as of 1989.

Olena Protsenko, a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, conducted this interview remotely over the Zoom application.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. Robert Hirschfeld is Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. He was the team leader of team # 3 during the 1989 psychiatric delegation to the U.S.S.R.

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

Dr. Robert Hirschfeld did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).

Parent restrictions:
The interviews with the former Soviet patients and the original 1989 recording are restricted and special permissions apply.
Parent terms of access:
The Arthur J. Morris Law Library does not grant researchers permission to publish copies of any of the materials in this collection.

Online content