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by Robert Kertzner, M.D, The twentieth anniversary of the HIV Center is
an occasion for much celebration and many
comments, but I wish to focus on two legacies of
the Center. First, though, it must be said that
the Center stands out as a historic gathering of
many exceptional colleagues, fellows, and staff.
The founding of the Center arose from several
conversations about how Columbia could
contribute its resources to AIDS research as
well as now-legendary materials such as the
napkin on which our late colleague Rafael
Tavares sketched an outline for the first
Community Core. This sketch -- and presumably
unknown others -- foreshadowed an impressive
two-decade record of research, training, and
public policy formulation and service in AIDS.
Beyond this record, the HIV Center has a
particular two-fold significance that I would
like to highlight. First, to many of us working
in the fields of sexuality and mental health at
the outset of the HIV epidemic, the Center
served as a beacon of enlightened thought at a
time when academic, professional, and scientific
knowledge of sexuality was emerging from a
darker age. This was particularly true in
psychiatry, which was misinformed by social
prejudice and flawed methods of inquiry.
Fortunately, a better informed and expansive
view of sexuality and health was promulgated at
Columbia by Anke Ehrhardt and Zena Stein,
co-founders along with Robert Spitzer of the
HIV Center. In particular, Anke Ehrhardt
and Heino Meyer-Bahlburg represented the
vanguard of an academic glasnost in the
teaching of human sexuality 25 years ago.Their
teaching, based on a bio-psychological
perspective that considered sexuality a positive
life force, stood in contrast to medical
orthodoxy that emphasized the pathological
aspects of sexuality.
The HIV Center also represents another
important development in the evolution of the
modern research center. The distinctions among
researchers, practitioners, and those affected
by HIV were far less pronounced from the outset
of the Center compared with the traditional
relationship between academic centers and those
affected by the health problems that were being
studied. To cite a few examples, colleagues
from Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) advised the
Center on the design of early studies, and
research participants were actively involved in
all phases of research. This included forums in
which participants let Center investigators
know what topics needed further study.
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Dr. Robert
Kertzner
(standing
center)
speaking at the
dedication of
the Rafael
Tavares
Conference Room
at the HIV
Center's 20th
anniversary
event on March
27, 2008
Most
significantly,
the fact that
some Center
investigators
and those close
to them had HIV
and AIDS
brought the
experience of
living with the
epidemic home
to all of us.
It may not seem
exceptional
today, but
twenty years
ago the
immediacy of
AIDS shook up
many notions of
the distance
between
observer and
the observed.
The Center
understood not
just the
urgency of
AIDS, but this
immediacy as
well.
The legacies
highlighted
above had a
transformative
effect on
successive
cohorts of
students,
fellows,
faculty, and
colleagues. I
have a special
regard for those
who signed up to
be "transformed"
early in their
careers (a.k.a.
fellows) and who
gave much to the
Center. These
fellows,
together with
several
generations of
HIV Center
faculty and
staff, are
responsible for
a third legacy
of the Center,
the most
personal for me.
It is the legacy
of generosity in
which persons at
various stages
of their careers
come together to
lend and develop
expertise in HIV
prevention and
mental health;
we quickly
taught each
other what the
science of AIDS
prevention and
mental health
required. While
I often wonder
(as do many)
about how life
would have been
different
without AIDS, I
cannot imagine
the absence of
the HIV Center
and the role it
has played for
so many of us
who had the
opportunity to
participate in a
response to an
epidemic that
deeply touched
our lives.
Robert
Kertzner, M.D. was an
investigator at
the HIV Center
from 1988 to
2003 and is
currently an
Associate
Clinical
Professor of
Psychiatry at
the University
of California at
San Francisco.
Formerly the
Training
Director of the
HIV Center, Kertzner remains
an advisor and Adjunct
Associate Research
Scientist at the
Center. |
