Carolyn L. Attneave

Born: 1920 in El Paso, Texas
Died: 1992

Education

1936 enrolled at Chico State College in California
1940 earned her baccalaureate degree in English and theater and later another bachelor’s degree in secondary education
1942 enrolled in the graduate program at Stanford University
1952 finished her doctoral studies in clinical psychology

Major Contributions and Achievements

1942-1947 served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve where she became one of their first women officers
Best known among Indian and Native psychologists for initiating and sustaining numerous culturally based activities and programs, advances in family network therapy, and founding the Society of Indian Psychologists
1963 moved to Oklahoma to become a regional coordinator of community guidance services for the state’s Department of Health
1969 moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to accept an appointment at the Child Guidance Clinic
There she worked with Jay Haley and Ross Speck on ways to refine network therapy as an alternative to hospitalization for schizophrenic patients
1969 moved to Boston to coordinate the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Public Service Career Program
1970 founded, wrote, and edited the Network of Indian Psychologists newsletter created to exchange information about services available to Indian communities She became a founding member of the Boston Indian Council, one of the largest Indian centers in the country
1973 Collaborated with Morten Beiser and Alexander Leighton as a research associate and lecturer in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health
1973 published, along with Ross Speck, Family Networks: Retribalization and Healing
Conducted with Beiser a baseline study of the mental health needs, service networks, and utilization patterns in the eight catchment areas of the Indian Health Service This effort produced a nine-volume document and ultimately led to Carolyn’s collaboration with Diane Kelso on a National Institute of Mental Health sponsored project to compile an annotated and computerized bibliography of American Indian and Alaska Native mental health research 1975 Last official academic appointment when she accepted a professorship in the psychology department at the University of Washington Here she also directed the university’s American Indian Studies Program
1980 Retired but continued to write, lecture, and travel until her death in 1992
Interview with Carolyn aptly titled, Keeper of the Fire: A Profile of Carolyn Attneave, Teresa LaFromboise and Candace Fleming (1990) referred to her as a “cultural broker,” an impassioned proponent of family network therapy, “a storyteller, “a synthesizer in an age of specialization,” and a “wise mother of the tribe” (pp. 544, 542, 545, 546, & 546).