INSIDE CHESTNUT LODGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500110034-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 5, 2000
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: October 24, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

211 Oct 1971
Approved For Release 2001/08/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R0005AM-66WL7
By Hank Plante
Sentinel Staff Writer.
Where would the head of the Cen
tral Intelligence Agency turn for psy-
chiatric care? The"same place as his
\top deputy. Although neither one of
them knew it. ..
THe late Allen. W.. Dulles, who w
:CIA director from..1953 to 1961.w
i? too';coniplicated and too secretive.
man ta pick just any, hospital-for his
out-.patient psychiatri,therap}i.. But
even Dulles,.who had all?the informa-
of psychiatry were Written by physi-
cians closely associated with the in-
stitution. .,, >,.
Keeping away from that "Beverly
~"yaNl4 ... .Fj4 "W YI VVa,I V"V
at all, for that matter,-has steered `-"
Chestnut's admissions staff intaof the only institutions in the world to
organize itself strictly around the.
turning down- both Marilyn Monroe'
land Judy Garland at different times,.care of the, severely disturbed -- espe-
cially acute schizophrenics.
as well as other less notables, accord- Because of this, Chestnut has been
ing to high level Lodge officials. 4he sdmetimes ;disguised subject: o
Because it is more of'a national in- many in-the-field reports, nd papers,
stitution than a local clinic (with only well as the model for the best-
five per cent' of its patients coming sellers "Lilith" written by a former
f
he"
r
rom t
met
aiori:;that-his positionas.head of the..
opolitan Washingtonloccupational therapist at the Lodge,
area), getting. into .Chestnut Lodge r
C14 would allow him;: could never
can take two weeks to a month of con-land "I Never Promised You a Rose
Vhave?guessed that.his planning depu ferences, or longer. Garden," written under a pseudonym
I
ty. and. eventual successor, Richard ?In the case.of someone like Judyjby a former patient.
Helms,' would pick the same institu Garland, for example, a Lodge psy The model for the heroine-psyc'ni-
tion..for-the;same thing--::-* chiatrist says, "They have some sortlatrist in "Rose Garden." who wash
f PR
ffi
d
o
ce tall an
try to mane the
same psychiatrist at the same hospi=! o
tal on-different days....That is, until' arrangements, that's the way these
"
the schedules got mixed people work. up.
The day that they.bumped int Bullard, the medical director,
,?o]
each ; other in their doctor's office; adds that often the hospiial's admis-
could` have been a scene.'or tension
right out of "The President's Ana-
lyst." Instead, according= to one se-`
nior? medical official at the hospital;
stops officals will go out and. visit the
prospective patients themselves.
For the Chestnut staffers, being
surrounded by persons of great no-
l
called Dr.. Fried in the book, toI
fact, was the late Dr. Frieda Fromm-!
Reichman, whom many in the field
consider to be more influential than;
even her one-time -husband, Erich'
Fromm ("The Art of Loving").
Bringing Dr. Fromm-Reichman
on the staff, and then her bringing in
Scotland's noted . Dr. John L. Ca.-;
meron, was the shrewd work o1
Chestnut's great overseer and presia
dent and the man one medical fries
calls "the last of the great icon
clasts," Dr. Dexter M. Bullard Sr.
It was Bullard, whose psychia-
trist-father founded Chestnut and
th to a mental instttu-
the repercussions were' "none at all.) torteey or wea
tion goes unnoticed, according to one
They were both amused, actually, but; former aide, "Just the same as you
surprised of course! And there was wouldn't notice anyone of notoriety at
also an element of compassion there an embassy. party'"
between them.".
The institution And like_ it or notl one-of the things
ca
able of drawinn - -? - - -
p
these esteemed patients,, and ma71
others like ,them,"is-.almost ' an un
known as that Dulles-Helms meeting
The-hospital is Rockville's Chestnut
Lodge. -
ex-resort hotel have paid for duringlwhose psychiatrist-son, Dexter Jr. is
the last 62 years is anonymity. destined to take it over, who, along
Example: When the wife of one with his wife, Anne, has built the
former CIA employe had to be insti-;Lodge to its position of national es-
tutionalized, Chestnut was the place, t0ern. At the same time the Bullards
11
., ..n _
independent medical sources have-have kept the lid on any off-grounds
Spread out on an anonymous 88 confirmed to The Sentinel. publicity other than the occasional
acres of meadows, shade trees, gym- And that same anonymity has,l suicide or'false-alarm that makes the I
nasiums, tennis courts and craft.: over the years, drawn people like the public police blotter as ""500 West
shops, and ranked with Topeka`s
daughter of a recent Defense Veal, Montgomery Avenue."
Menninger Foundation, Richmond's partment official, the son of a 1940s
.~~
Westbrook, Baltimore's Sheppard- IJD IICfly
.and Enoch Pratt, and Connecticut's tig, band leader, the first wife of a , In the last two years there has
Silver Hill, the lower-profiled Chest still popular crooner, the corporate been only one suicide last summer
nut Lodge is the epitome of private heir who had a reputation for getting -- and one killing -- a sheer twentieth
psychiatric care -- at about $40,000. married so often and the former, century crime in which one patient
per year per patient. Washington newspaper publisher allegedly beat another to death with
~? who killed himself while on weekend an electric guitar.
We don't solicit the Beverly Hills a
crowd," the Lodge's medical director leave from the Lodge. Publicity, other than that, is non-:
Dexter M. Bullard Jr. says. But if Private -planes existent other than the yearly- fall'
they did, hospital officials could boast Likewise, rumors of kings, em.' psychiatric symposiums which bring
of 25-full-time psychiatrists for its 90 perors and titular heads flying in on 'in 200 of the top names in the field,
beds, or of the fact that three of the 10 their private planes for sessions at 'and the occasional cucumber' sand-
books most often used in the teaching Chestnut have grown through the