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Harry
A. Wilmer, a psychiatrist, scholar and writer, and his wife, Jane,
founded the Institute in 1980. After many years of
 teaching, Dr. Wilmer
decided to create a public forum to foster discussion on important
issues. The Institute for the Humanities gained a national reputation
for its work under the direction of Dr. Wilmer who served as its
director for 17 years. Even after his retirement from that position, he
was a driving force in its continued success.
Dr. Wilmer retired from his posts as Senior Psychiatrist at Scott and
White Clinic and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas
Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. Prior to coming to Texas, he was
Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco
and Stanford University.
While at the Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, Harry did pioneering
psychotherapeutic work with schizophrenic Vietnam veterans suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder. While there, he also founded and
directed four annual International Film Festivals that brought in
speakers from all over the world to discuss important medical and human
issues. The Institute for the Humanities at Salado was an outgrowth of
these conferences in San Antonio.
Besides the film festivals and conferences, during his career Dr. Wilmer
also produced films, plays, a PBS documentary, and wrote more than 200
articles and sixteen books. Some of his books include: How Dreams Help,
Nuts and Bolts of Jungian Psychotherapy, Understandable Jung-The
Personal Side of Jungian Psychology, and Huber the Tuber.
His book Social Psychiatry in Action was made into a made-for-television
movie entitled, People Need People. This highly acclaimed, docu-drama
illustrated Dr. Wilmer’s groundbreaking contributions to psychotherapy
in the United Sates. Dr. Wilmer had a major role in bringing group
therapy to this country. He pioneered this new kind of therapy in the
U.S. through his work with psychiatric servicemen who were patients at
Oakland Naval Hospital during the Korean War. Although this form of
therapy is common today, fifty years ago, it was revolutionary, and
paved the way for many advances in the treatment of psychiatric
patients.
Dr. Wilmer graduated from The University of Minnesota medical school. He
trained in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic where he was also on the staff.
He also has been on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, Stanford,
and the University of California, where he was professor of psychiatry
before coming to Texas. He received his Jungian analyst training in
Zurich on a Guggenheim Fellowship. From 1955-57, he served as a Captain
in the US. Navy, assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland
California and the National Naval Medical Research Institute, in
Bethesda, Maryland.
Harry and Jane had five children: John, Jim, Mary, Tom and late Hank
Wilmer.
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