Otto Billig Biographical File

Collection

Identifier: EBL-0253

Staff Only

Abstract

This file includes several obituaries of Dr. Billig and his wife, photographs, reprints, a biographical article used with an exhibit of his photos held at Vanderbilt's Medical Library in 1985, a review of his book "Flying Saucers: Magic in the Skies", several newspaper clippings, a collection of photos of drawings created by psychotic patients in New Guinea, used in Dr. Billig's book entitled: " Psychotic Art in New Guinea a Cross-Cultural Study."

Dates

1948 - 1989

Notes about Access to this Collection

All collections are subject to applicable VUMC privacy and confidentiality policies.

Reproduction Rights

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Historical or Biographical Note

Professor Otto Billig (1910-1989) was a psychiatrist, author,teacher, art collector,and photographer. His research interests included schizophrenia, art and psychosis, and cross-culture psychiatry. He published several articles and books. He specialized in the art of schizophrenics and created many new art exhibits of this art. He also compared the art of patients in the US with art from more primitive cultures, noting similarities in the art of the mentally disturbed. He received his M.D. from Federal Realschule (Vienna) in 1937. Dr. Billig served as the Clinical Director of the Department of Neuro-Psychiatry at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, NC from 1939-1946. Then he joined Duke University's clinical faculty from 1946-1948. After his time at Duke, he became a member of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's clinical faculty from 1948-1989. He also served as the Acting Chair for the Department of Psychiatry at the Meharry Medical College from 1952-1961, and he was a member of the Metro Board of Health (Nashville) from 1963-1973. Dr. Billig died of a heart attack in 1989.