8 Quotes & Sayings By Karl Menninger

Karl A. Menninger was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1883, the youngest of three children of a German-American Methodist minister. He graduated from Topeka High School in 1901, and in 1904 entered the University of Kansas, where he worked on the school newspaper, The Kansan. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1907, Menninger pursued graduate studies at the State University of Iowa, where he received an M.D Read more

degree in 1910. He practiced medicine for two years in Topeka before moving to New York City to work as an assistant physician at Bellevue Hospital. He became a professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1914 and later moved to Philadelphia.

In 1923, Menninger opened his own psychiatric clinic at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, which quickly became known as one of the world's most prestigious mental health institutions.

1
The adjuration to be "normal" seems shockingly repellent to me; I see neither hope nor comfort in sinking to that low level. I think it is ignorance that makes people think of abnormality only with horror and allows them to remain undismayed at the proximity of "normal" to average and mediocre. For surely anyone who achieves anything is, a priori, abnormal. Karl Menninger
2
The very word, “sin, ” which seems to have disappeared, was once a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. … But the word went away. It has almost disappeared – the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin? Karl Menninger
3
Neurotic means he is not as sensible as I am and psychotic means he's even worse than my brother-in-law. Karl Menninger
4
Generous people are rarely mentally ill people. Karl Menninger
5
What's done to children they will do to society. Karl Menninger
6
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward and we want to sit in their radius. When we are listened to it creates us makes us unfold and expand. Karl Menninger
7
It is this intangible thing love in many forms which enters into every therapeutic relationship.. .. And it is an element which binds and heals which comforts and restores which works what we have to call - for now - miracles. Karl Menninger