Service set for psychiatrist Oscar Weiner, 92
A memorial service will be Sunday, July 24, for Oscar R. Weiner, 92, of Bala Cynwyd, a physician and practicing psychiatrist who died Wednesday, June 29, of heart disease at the Lankenau Hospital hospice.
A memorial service will be Sunday, July 24, for Oscar R. Weiner, 92, of Bala Cynwyd, a physician and practicing psychiatrist who died Wednesday, June 29, of heart disease at the Lankenau Hospital hospice.
Well before the advent of drugs as a standard treatment for mental illness, Dr. Weiner dealt with patients suffering from anxiety, addiction, depression, and stress by talking them through their problems. In time, the talk therapy that he practiced gave way to psychotropic drugs, leaving Dr. Weiner feeling like "a dinosaur," his family said.
He became interested in psychiatry while stationed at the U.S. Army's Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., during the early 1950s. In addition to his work in talk therapy, he became a pioneer in family therapy and a founding member of the Family Institute of Philadelphia.
Family therapy, which gained popularity in the second half of the 20th century, focuses on the family as an entity with its own unique communication patterns. For healing to occur within a dysfunctional family, its dynamics must change, and the therapist is the agent of that change.
When Dr. Weiner and his colleagues first put forth the concept of viewing the family as patient, it was viewed as revolutionary, his relatives said he told them.
"In fact, he and others were concerned it would be considered un-American. Their work was considered heresy to see the family as sick, yet it was a very powerful tool," his family wrote in a tribute.
The Family Institute of Philadelphia was nationally known, and Dr. Weiner trained many psychiatrists under its aegis before it closed in 2001, due in large part to the decline of talk therapy and the rise of pharmaceuticals as a treatment tool. Dr. Weiner practiced for 64 years from an office on Logan Square in Center City. At age 92, he still had 45 patients.
"He literally died the day before his office lease was due to expire," his family said.
Born in Philadelphia, Dr. Weiner graduated from Overbrook High School. As a teenager, he played first violin in the City Orchestra, his family said. He went on to the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1944.
Because of anti-Semitism, his family said, he completed medical school not once, but twice.
"It was very hard at the time for Jews to get in, so he attended medical school at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, which was seen as second-rate at the time, although DOs now are pretty much equivalent to MDs," his family said. "Then he redid medical school, all four years, showing incredible resolve."
He graduated in 1951 from the Hahnemann University School of Medicine. In 1944, Dr. Weiner married Rae B. Weiner. She died in 1973. Three years later, he married Joan M. Weiner. In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughter Marcie W. Portman, sons Mark and Jon, and six grandchildren.
Memorial services will be at 11 a.m. Sunday, July 24, in the conservatory at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, 215 Belmont Ave., Bala Cynwyd. Burial is private.
610-313-8102