Emory Cowen—A Man of Action

Abstract

In 1971, I entered the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Rochester, and at that time, I wasn’t even aware that there was a field called Community Psychology. The late 1960s, however, had primed me for this ideology. I will never forget Emory’s presentation to our clinical class during our first month of graduate school. He told us that there would never be enough psychologists to meet the demands and needs for psychological services. He then mentioned that clinical outcome studies with different patient groups had not indicated any differences between professionals and paraprofessional therapists. For a moment, I had an uncomfortable feeling, perhaps my first professional identity crisis, for why would I want to become a clinical psychologist if my current natural skills were as good as someone with a more advanced degree? Emory reassured us that these findings were liberating, for there were now new roles available to us in training and supervising paraprofessionals, consulting to change agents, advocacy, and social policy analysis. I was hooked after one lecture. Emory had shown me and my classmates the possibilities of an expanded view of clinical psychology. Emory didn’t just provide the rhetoric for this new model; he actively developed and refined social and community interventions at the Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP). He showed us the potential of this new field and inspired us to action. After Emory’s lecture, I had heard that all fourth year students attended a year-long community psychology practicum, where students had the opportunity to collaborate with community-based programs. As a first-year student, I thought this was a wonderful idea for a course, and without asking Emory, I began attending this advanced course. Emory never asked why a first-year student would want to attend this advanced class, and this characterized his openness and willingness to let students progress at their own pace. I attended Emory’s research meetings at the PMHP for four years, and at these meetings, employees and graduate students were able to see Emory’s conceptual ideas translated into real-world