Carola Eisenberg, M.D. (1917-2021)

Child psychiatrist and human rights activist Carola Eisenberg, M.D., died March 11. She was 103.

With five other doctors, Eisenberg founded Physicians for Human Rights. The organization grew to have an international impact, documenting torture and abuses around the globe and advocating for individuals seeking asylum in the United States. She was active in the organization into her 90s as chair of its Asylum Committee.

Eisenberg was a pioneer among women in medicine, becoming the first woman dean of students at MIT and dean of student affairs at Harvard Medical School. In 1989, the New England Journal published an article she wrote, “Medicine Is No Longer a Man’s Profession.”

“Full justice for women requires that they have an equal opportunity for professional success after acceptance to medical school,” she wrote. “The playing field is hardly level if only superwomen, rather than most women, can satisfy the needs of their families and meet their professional goals.”

She was born Carolina Blitzman in Bueno Aires on September 15, 1917. After receiving her medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires and taking her psychiatric training at the Hospicio De Las Mercedes, she emigrated to the United States—where she changed her name to Carola—and became a fellow in child psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

She married Manfred Guttmacher, M.D., a forensic psychiatrist who died in 1966. She subsequently married psychiatrist Leon Eisenberg, M.D., who died in 2009. She is survived by two sons—both physicians—Alan Guttmacher, M.D., and Laurence Guttmacher, M.D.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

In an obituary in the Boston Globe, past APA President Carol Nadelson, M.D., a friend of Eisenberg’s, recalled: “She was a great, generous, open, friendly caring human being. She conquered a lot of adversity in her life and was always able to stand up to it with a smile.” ■