I sit here on Father’s Day during a global pandemic and can’t help but think of Mark Twain’s quote, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” Isn’t that what calls us to our profession? When friends ask if I have watched a particular movie or TV show, I almost always say no. Why would I? Day after day at “work” I am hearing the most remarkable stories – many unfolding right before my eyes.
Courtesy Dr. Eva Ritvo
Dr. Edward Ross Ritvo shares a light moment with his daughter, Eva, and their dogs, circa 1963.
My Dad’s story is no less remarkable. As he was a pioneer in our field, I hope you will allow me to share a few recollections.
June 10, just 10 days after turning 90, Dad died peacefully in his home. His obituary, written by James McCracken, MD, says: “He was an internationally known child psychiatrist who, with colleagues, formed the vanguard of UCLA researchers establishing the biomedical basis of autism in the 1960s despite the prevailing psychological theories of the day ... who would later break new ground in identifying the role of genetics, sleep, and neurophysiological differences, perinatal risk factors, and biomarkers relating to autism and autism risk.”
Dad had extensive training in psychoanalysis and worked hard to maintain expertise in both the psychological and biological arenas. While he helped established autism as a neurologic disease and advocated for DSM criteria changes, he continued teaching Psychodynamic Theory of Personality to the UCLA medical students and maintained a clinical practice based in psychotherapeutic techniques. He was practicing biopsychosocial medicine long before the concept was articulated.
Courtesy Dr. Eva Ritvo
Dr. Edward Ross Ritvo, who was a pilot in his younger days, copiloted this flight from Connecticut to Florida.
He conducted the first epidemiologic survey of autism in the state of Utah. He chose Utah because the Mormons keep perfect genealogical records. He identified multiple families with more than one child affected as well as examining, pre-, peri-, and postnatal factors affecting these families. Being a maverick has its challenges. One paper about parents with mild autism was rejected from publication seven times before a watered-down version of clinical vignettes finally got accepted. In collaboration with his wife, Riva Ariella Ritvo, he developed the Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale–Revised, (RAADS-R) still in use today.
Dad’s career was complicated by medical issues beginning in his 40s when he had a near-fatal heart attack at the top of Mammoth Mountain while skiing. After struggling for 20 years, he ultimately had a heart transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 69 years old. Months after the transplant, he was back at work. He was unstoppable and maintained his optimism and great sense of humor throughout this complicated ordeal. He always remembered his commitment to his donor and his new heart, and worked out every day. Living to 90 was against all the odds.
Dad also persevered throughout his youngest son’s 10-year battle with Ewing’s sarcoma. Despite losing Max in 2016, Dad was active in research and clinical practice until the very end. He was doing telepsychiatry with patients in prisons and rehabilitation hospitals the last few years because he was too weak to travel to an office. He continued his research, and his last paper on eye movement responses as a possible biological marker of autism was published in February 2020.
Although Dad did not have COVID-19, the social isolation and stress of the last few months hastened his decline. The last week in the hospital with no visitors was too much for such a social man, and he died days after he was discharged. Always a trailblazer, Dad’s Zoom funeral was watched across the country by his children, grandchildren, extended family, and friends. Choosing to honor his wish to be cautious in this pandemic, we remained sheltering in place.
Dr. Eva Ritvo
As Dad was the ultimate professor, I know he would want us to learn from his life and his passing. We are in an accelerated growth phase now as our lives and the lives of our patients are radically altered.
I hope, like Dad, we can choose to feel nourished by our meaningful work as we travel through life’s ups and downs. We must learn new ways to care for ourselves, our families, and our patients during these challenging times. We must find ways to mourn and celebrate those lost during the pandemic.
I know Dad would love synchronicity that I spent Father’s Day writing about him for Clinical Psychiatry News! Thank you for giving me this gift of reflection on this special day.
Dr. Ritvo, a psychiatrist with more than 25 years’ experience, practices in Miami Beach. She is the author of “Bekindr – The Transformative Power of Kindness” (Hellertown, Pa.: Momosa Publishing, 2018) and is the founder of the Bekindr Global Initiative, a movement aimed at cultivating kindness in the world. Dr. Ritvo also is the cofounder of the Bold Beauty Project, a nonprofit group that pairs women with disabilities with photographers who create art exhibitions to raise awareness.