Psychiatrists used the Hollywood set as a means of financing their own movement and agenda. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger �was well known for courting movie people, especially those who could come up with hefty donations to support his clinic and research foundation.� There was another reason Menninger enjoyed mixing with producers and studio heads: they generated business for his clinic. Those who had met the psychiatrist �were soon shipping their [so-called] mentally unbalanced performers off to Topeka [Kansas] for treatment.�

One of these was Robert Walker, who co-starred with Judy Garland in the 1944 film, �The Clock.� After his separation from actress Jennifer Jones, Walker began drinking heavily. In 1948, he was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and Dore Schary, head of production at MGM, gave him an ultimatum: submit to treatment at the Menninger Clinic or be fired.

Walker went to the mid-Western psychiatric facility and was also made to continue regular therapy with Los Angeles psychiatrist Frederick Hacker, who had trained at the Menninger Clinic. Not only was the psychiatric �therapy� ineffective, it killed Walker. On August 28, 1951, Walker went into shock and died after being given a powerful barbiturate. Four decades later, Los Angeles therapist Alex Rogawski was the first to be candid about this: �Hacker killed Robert Walker.�

The 1945 movie �Spellbound� was among the first productions to employ psychiatrists as consultants, listing May Romm as �psychiatric advisor� in the credits.

Another notorious Hollywood psychiatrist was Martin Grotjahn, who had emigrated from Germany at the invitation of Karl Menninger and worked at his clinic until 1945 before moving to Los Angeles. In 1950, along with Frederick Hacker and May Romm, he founded the Institute for Psychoanalytic Medicine of Southern California, a training center for analysts.

Grotjahn admitted that he was attracted to Hollywood and movie stars because �I was anxious to make money.� Of course, Grotjahn never permitted his opinion that �actors are almost impossible to treat successfully,� prevent him from billing for his unworkable treatment.

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