Joost Meerloo

Who was Joost Meerloo?

Joost Abraham Maurits Meerloo was a Dutch Doctor of Medicine and psychoanalyst.

Born as Abraham Maurits 'Bram' Meerloo in The Hague, Netherlands, he came to United States in 1946, was naturalized in 1950, and resumed Dutch citizenship in 1972. Dr. Meerloo was a practicing psychiatrist for over forty years. He did staff psychiatric work in the Netherlands and worked as a general practitioner until 1942 under Nazi occupation, when he assumed the name Joost to fool the occupying forces and in 1942 fled to England. He was chief of the Psychological Department of the Dutch Army-in-Exile in England.

After the war he served as High Commissioner for Welfare in the Netherlands, and was an advisor to UNRRA and SHAEF. An American citizen since 1950, Dr. Meerloo was a member of the faculty at Columbia University and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the New York School of Psychiatry. He was the author of many books, including Rape of the Mind, the classic work on brainwashing, Conversation and Communication, and Hidden Communion.

He was the son of Bernard and Anna Frederika Meerloo. He married Elisabeth Johanna Kalf, Den Haag, May 16, 1928, divorce Februari 19, 1946.