Mortimer Ostow, M.D., Ph.D.

HDRF Founding Board Member. Former Attending Psychiatrist, Montefiore Medical Center


Mortimer Ostow was born and raised in New York. After receiving a Master’s degree in chemistry from Columbia University, he entered medical school at New York University and graduated in 1941. He then trained in psychiatry in Washington, DC, and joined the United States Public Health Service. After the Second World War, Dr. Ostow resumed his studies, pursuing training in neurology, psychoanalysis, and neurophysiology. His subsequent academic and clinical career spanned over 60 years, and he was widely respected as an analyst, a teacher, and a scientist. He pioneered the coordination of psychopharmacological treatment with psychoanalysis and also the integration of mental health education in the training of Jewish clergy. His nearly 200 scientific publications include 12 books. His last book, Spirit, Mind, and Brain, applied neurophysiological insights to what he called man’s “religious instinct.”

Dr. Ostow was recognized as one of the early supporters of the integration of neuroscience with psychoanalysis and psychiatry. He was a Founding Board Member of the Hope for Depression Research Foundation. In his honor, HDRF created the Mortimer Ostow Lecture Series at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, supporting leading neuroscience presentations to the psychoanalytic community.

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