Abraham Low

Overview
Abraham A. Low (1891-1954), was a Jewish neuropsychiatrist noted for his work establishing self-help programs for the mentally ill, and criticism of Freudian psychoanalysis. He was born February 28, 1891 in Baranów Sandomierski, Poland.

Low attended grade school, high school and medical school in France from 1910 to 1918. He continued his medical education in Austria, serving in the Medical Corps of the Austrian Army. He graduated with a medical degree in 1919, after his military service, from the University of Vienna Medical School. After serving an internship in Vienna, Austria from 1919 to 1920, he immigrated to the United States, obtaining his U.S. citizenship in 1927. From 1921 to 1925 he practiced medicine in both New York, New York and Chicago, Illinois. In 1925 he was appointed as an instructor of neurology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Medical School and became an associate professor of psychiatry.

From 1931 to 1941 he supervised the Illinois State Hospitals. During this time he conducted demanding seminars with the staff and interviewed the most severe mental patients in the wards. In 1936, Dr. Low's Studies in Infant Speech and Thought was published by the University of Illinois Press. Some sixty papers are by Dr. Low dealing variously with such topics as: Histopathology of brain and spinal cord, studies on speech disturbances (aphasias) in brain lesions, clinical testing of psychiatric and neurological conditions, studies in shock treatment, laboratory investigations of mental diseases and several articles on group psychotherapy had been published in medical periodicals.

In 1954 Dr. Low passed away at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His contributions to the psychiatric and mental health communities are often not well known, but his work has and continues to assist numerous individuals in the area of mental health.

Founding and work with Recovery, Inc.
In 1937, Dr. Low founded Recovery, Inc.. He served as its medical director from 1937 to 1954. During this time he presented lectures to relatives of former patients on his work with these patients and the before and after scenarios. In 1941, Recovery Inc. became an independent organization. Dr. Low's three volumes of The Technique of Self-help in Psychiatric Aftercare (including "Lectures to Relatives of Former Patients") were published by Recovery, Inc. in 1943. Recovery's main text, Mental Health Through Will-Training, was originally published in 1950. Dr. Low wrote numerous articles and presented hundreds of lectures on the Recovery system of self-help aftercare between 1937 and 1954. He also developed the Recovery Self Help Model, used in the Recovery, Inc. support groups to the present throughout the United States and other countries.