New York physician M. Murray Peshkin (1892-1990) was the medical
director of the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital
in Denver from 1940 to 1959. Peshkin noticed that some of his
most severe asthma patients improved markedly as soon as they
were removed from their homes and hospitalized--before their
treatments had had a chance to work. Peshkin came to advocate
"parentectomy," a change in environment for severe
asthmatic children who had not improved with other treatments.
He attributed parentectomy's success both to removal of the child
from allergens in their homes and from the psychological conflicts
they might have had with their parents.
Morris Murray Peshkin M.D. and philanthropist Fannie E. Lorber
with two children from the National Asthma Center (formerly the
National Home for Jewish Children) in Denver, 1956
Courtesy National Jewish
Medical and Research Center