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MSS 95-4

The Papers of Harvey Fireside

Overview

Papers (1977-1987) that relate to the APA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry. There are case files. Russian manuscripts, photographs

Dates
1977-1987 [Inclusive]
Extents
2.3 Linear Feet (6 archival boxes)

Scope & Contents

The Harvey Fireside Papers are concerned with the psychiatric abuse of Soviet dissidents between 1979 and 1987. The papers document the efforts of American psychiatrists, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Committee on Abuse of Psychiatry, Amnesty International, the United Nations, and other international organizations, to stop this abuse in the Soviet Union. In addition, there is mention of similar cases in South Africa, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina.

In particular, as a representative of Amnesty International, Fireside worked very closely with the APA in the effort to free Dr. Anatoly Koryagin, a psychiatrist imprisoned for many years. There is also some documentation of the work of European psychiatrists, principally from Sweden and England. A number of these documents are in Russian. Finally, there are photographs of many of the Soviet dissidents.

Along with the papers of Richard Bonnie, Saleem Shah, and Dr. Loren Roth, this collection is a valuable resource for scholars studying politically based psychiatric abuse.

Collection Description

  •  
    Biographical / Historical

    Harvey Fireside was born on 28 December 1929 in Vienna, Austria. At the time of his birth, and until he came to America in 1940, his name was Heinz Wallner. His father had changed his name from Feuerzeug to a more neutral name.

    In March 1938, when the Nazis took over Austria, Jewish citizens listened in horror as the streets were filled with cheering Viennese, many of them sporting gold Nazi emblems identifying them as members of the once illegal Nazi party, now a badge of special import. Eight months later, the full impact of the Nazi invasion became clear. On Kristalnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," Hitler Youth marched through Vienna smashing Jewish-owned shops and taking anything of value. Harvey's father owned a small photography studio. A Christian friend who was now a Nazi official called Norbert to come to his shop. When he got there, the place was looted, but the official had chased the thugs away, and allowed Norbert to take out one professional camera and a guest book. Within days, Harvey's family was forced from their home and resettled in the Jewish Ghetto with members of his stepmother's family. Harvey's family frantically looked for a way to leave Vienna, and help came from Norbert's brother in Illinois. Harvey accompanied his father to the U.S. Consulate, where their fate would be sealed. The Consulate physician hesitated to approve Norbert because he had a limp, but Norbert noticed a brand new camera on the physician's desk and commented on its virtues, and by the time he explained to the physician how it worked, the doctor said, "You will have no trouble earning a living in America. In April of 1940, Harvey, his father and stepmother left for America, and suddenly, Heinz Wallner became Harvey Fireside, the same last name as Norbert's brother.

    In 1944, Harvey and his family moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where Harvey attended high school. He was valedictorian of the class of 1948, and went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard University, class of 1952. He earned an MA from Harvard in 1955, and a Ph.D., from the New School for Social Research in 1968.

    In 1959, after a whirlwind romance of just ten weeks, he married Bryna J. (Levenberg) Fireside in New York City. By 1968, with two small children in tow, they left Greenwich Village for Ithaca, where Harvey accepted a teaching position with Ithaca College in the Politics Department. He later became the Charles A. Dana professor of politics. Harvey encouraged his students to take part in the Ithaca community by volunteering in a service organization of their choice. Many of his students volunteered at the Ithaca Youth Bureau, others at the Mental Health Association (for which Harvey served as president for several years). Harvey also encouraged his students to work in local and national political campaigns - several of them campaigned for Matt McHugh for D.A., who became the first Democratic D.A. in Tompkins County since the Civil War. He retired from Ithaca College in 1996, where he was named professor emeritus.

    He had articles published in dozens of journals and magazines, and conducted research in such areas as Soviet human rights, U.S. immigration policy, and human rights violations during the Bosnian conflict. Fireside's lifelong devotion to humanitarian causes is evidenced by his association with the Border Fund and his leadership of the Bosnian Student Project, which secures U.S. scholarships and accommodations for young refugees from Bosnia. Over the years, Fireside served as chair of his department, of a dean's search committee, of an inter-disciplinary curriculum committee, and of a long-range planning committee on admissions.

    Staff Writers, "Harvey Francis Fireside," Ithaca Journal, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theithacajournal/obituary.aspx?n=harvey... (accessed December 8, 2015)

  •  
    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    The Harvey Fireside Papers were donated by the Politics Department of Ithaca College to the Law Library in April of 1995.

file[Abuse of Psychiatry] - miscellaneous correspondence, memoranda, agenda, from Amnesty International, World Psychiatric Association, APA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists, Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in MentMSS 95-4, Box 1
fileAmnesty International USA - Vera Lipinskaya case, 1979MSS 95-4, Box 1
file[Amnesty International, International Association on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry (IAPUP), APA - Psychiatric Abuse] - correspondence, some handwritten notes, printed materials, 1985MSS 95-4, Box 1
fileAPA Cases - [re referrals of Soviet abuse of psychiatry] - correspondence, memoranda, news clippings, photocopies of articles and official documents, 1981MSS 95-4, Box 1
fileAPA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry - [Amnesty International documents re psychiatric abuse in the Soviet Union (1979); Helsinki Watch document concerning abuse of psychiatry in Yugoslavia (1981); International P.E.N. Writers in Prison CommMSS 95-4, Box 1
fileAPA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry - memoranda, minutes of meetings, correspondence, news-clippings, 1983MSS 95-4, Box 1
fileAPA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry, 1984MSS 95-4, Box 2
fileAPA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry, 1985MSS 95-4, Box 2
fileAPA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry, 1987MSS 95-4, Box 2
fileAPA - Dissidents. [APA correspondence, memoranda re dissidents; list of human rights cases] , 1981MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileAPA - [re Soviet Psychiatry] - correspondence, memoranda, statements, Fireside handwritten list of cases, 1982MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileAPA - [Political Abuse of Psychiatry], 1987MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileAPA - WPA [World Psychiatry Association] Psychiatry Abuse, 1984MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileCable Case: Mr. Hoffman [?], 1985MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileDVpMP [Deutsche Vereinigung Gegen Politischen Missbrauch Der Psychiatrie], 1987MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileGluzman, Semyon, 1982-1984MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileInternational Association on Political Use of Psychiatry (IAPUP) - documents and printed photographs of Soviet dissidents. , 1980-1982MSS 95-4, Box 3
fileIAPUP - Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals, 1981MSS 95-4, Box 4
fileKoryagin, Anatoly, 1981MSS 95-4, Box 4
fileKoryagin Trial, 1986MSS 95-4, Box 4
fileKoryagin [et al.] Biographies. [Some documents in Russian], 1980-1981MSS 95-4, Box 4
file[Mental Repression in the USSR] Articles, 1986MSS 95-4, Box 4
fileNewspaper Clippings, 1987MSS 95-4, Box 4
fileNovikov, Yuri. Grigorenko, Petro , 1979, 1981MSS 95-4, Box 4
filePhotographs of Irina Grivnina, Anatole Koryagin, S. Serebrov and Olga Ternovskaya. Postal Cards of Semyon Gluzman and Irina Grivnina, 1980-1981MSS 95-4, Box 4
filePodrabinek, Kiriel [Amnesty International Adopted Prisoner of Conscience], 1977, 1981MSS 95-4, Box 4
file[Psychiatric Abuses in the USSR and South Africa], 1982MSS 95-4, Box 4
fileRussian Manuscripts, [1970-1980]MSS 95-4, Box 5
fileSoviet Denials, 1980MSS 95-4, Box 5
file[Soviet Dissidents at Psychiatric Hospitals], 1982MSS 95-4, Box 5
fileSoviet Jewry, 1980-1982MSS 95-4, Box 5
fileSoviet Psychiatry, 1988MSS 95-4, Box 5
fileSoviet Prisoners. Compiled by Peter Reddaway. [Photographs of Alla and Mark Podrabinek, Ermak Lukyanov, Anna Chertkova], 1982-1984MSS 95-4, Box 5
fileUN Draft Principles re Mental Patients, 1980-1981MSS 95-4, Box 6
fileUN on Mental Illness, 1983-1984MSS 95-4, Box 6
fileWorking Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes. [Russian Documents] , 1978-1979MSS 95-4, Box 6
file[Working Group Against Psychiatric Abuse] - Copies of correspondence, statements, printed materials. Documents are from the Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals, IAPUP bulletins No. 4 and No. 6, APA, Koryagin, Anatoly: “autobiMSS 95-4, Box 6
fileWorld Psychiatry Association - Amnesty International. [Dissenters in Mental Hospitals], 1882MSS 95-4, Box 6
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