Leston Havens

Early life Havens was born on July 31, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York City, where he also grew up. His father was a lawyer, and Havens originally considered law as a career path before deciding on medicine.

Many of his lectures and recorded sessions are stored on the archived version of the Harvard Leston Havens M.D. Teaching Site.

Works Havens authored or coauthored over 150 publications, including seven books, at first centered around psychopharmacology and then later focused more around psychotherapeutic practice and technique. explores the precise application of language in the therapy room. Susan Monsky of the Boston Globe described the book as “a basic grammar of empathy.” Havens breaks down three buckets of language: empathetic language—finding the other—interpersonal language—managing distance—and performative language—liberating the patient, a concept Havens borrows from JL Austin. The suggested language, experienced by the patient as understanding, makes contact with what are abstractly understood to be drives and internal structures. Words bring abstract understanding into relationship with experience; the persons involved become the conveyance. The process is similar to what engineering does with scientific principles. It translates them through the medium of the physical world.

A Safe Place A Safe Place: Laying the Groundwork of Psychotherapy (1989) reviews the history of psychotherapy and psychiatry and discusses the conditions for therapeutic growth and healing.

Awards Leston Havens received many awards throughout his career.

1952 Cornell University Medical School: Morton prize in Internal Medicine, Samuel prize in ophthalmology, Alpha Omega Alpha 1958 A.E. Bennett Award, Society of Biological Psychiatry 1962 McCurdy Prize, Massachusetts Society for Research in Psychiatry 1970 Fried Lecture, Newton-Wellesley Hospital 1973 Who's Who in America 1977 H.C. Solomon Award with Thomas G. Gutheil, M.D. 1979 Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, Harvard Medical School, plus numerous nominations 1979 Elvin Semrad Teaching Award, Massachusetts Mental Health Center 1981 Valentina Donahue-Turner Award for Teaching, Harvard Medical School 1986 Harry Stack Sullivan Lecture, The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital 1986 Honorable Bernard Towson-Lectureship in Psychiatry, Cornell North Shore Hospital 1989 Frieda Fromm Reichman Lecturer, Washington Psychiatric Society 1992 Price Lecture, Trinity Church, Boston, MA 1995 Benjamin Rush Award and Lecture, American Psychiatric Association 1995 Nomination for 1995 Harvard Medical School Award for Excellence in Mentoring 1997 William F. Orr Lecture 1997 Zigmond Lebensohn Lecture 1998 Lee Hasenbush Lecture, MMHC 1998 Jacob Finesinger Lecture, University of Maryland 1999 Honorary Member, William Alanson White Institute, New York