Donald deAvila Jackson

Donald deAvila Jackson, M.D. (January 2, 1920 – January 29, 1968) was an American psychiatrist best known for his pioneering work in family therapy.

From 1947 to 1951, he studied under Harry Stack Sullivan.[1] From 1953 to 1962, he worked with Gregory Bateson, John Weakland, Jay Haley and William Fry, developing thinking in the areas of family therapy, brief therapy, systems theory and communication theory. One of the results of this research was the development of the double bind theory of schizophrenia.[2]

In 1958, he founded the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, and was its first director.[3]

Don died by accident while experimenting with possibly sodium pentothal as a form of reaching the subconscious on 29 January 1968. His death was alluded to cryptically, (often referred to as a suicide) because of the fact he was experimenting on himself.[4]

  1. ^ Don Jackson's Official Web site Archived August 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Don Jackson's Official Web site Archived 2008-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Don Jackson's Official Web site Archived February 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Ackerman, Nathan W. (1970). "The Don D Jackson Memorial Conference". Family Process. 9 (2): 117–121. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1970.00117.x. Archived from the original on 2022-01-09.