John Kerr (2) (1950–2016)

John Michael Kerr was born in Washington, D. C. on January 31, 1950. He received a degree in political science from Harvard University before entering New York University's graduate psychology program. He never got his doctorate, but became a visiting scholar at Cornell University, Harvard show more University, the Austen Riggs psychiatric treatment center, and the William Alanson White Institute. While he was a graduate student, the screenwriter Paul Schrader was looking for a research assistant to develop a script about the contentious relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Kerr was hired. In 1981, Schrader abandoned the project, but Kerr turned his research into a book, A Most Dangerous Method, which was published in 1993. The book was adapted into the 2002 play The Talking Cure and the 2011 film A Dangerous Method. He also worked as an editor at The Analytic Press. He died from complications of lung cancer on July 18, 2016 at the age of 66. (Bowker Author Biography) show less