Prevention & Treatment, Volume 3, Article 14, posted June 2, 2000
Copyright 2000 by the American Psychological Association

INTRODUCTION

In Memory of Neil S. Jacobson

Andrew Christensen
University of California, Los Angeles

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Andrew Christensen, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095.
E-mail: Christensen@psych.ucla.edu

One year prior to the publication of this memorial issue, on June 2, 1999, Neil S. Jacobson died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack. In his 50 years of life and approximately 25 years of professional activity as a psychologist (including 3 years of graduate school), he was enormously productive. He published over 200 papers and 11 books. But beyond the sheer numbers, he made some lasting contributions to three separate areas of research and scholarship: marital therapy, domestic violence, and the treatment of depression. For example, in the marital therapy area, he wrote the definitive book on behavioral couple therapy (Jacobson & Margolin, 1979) and conducted some of the best clinical trials on this treatment, trials that provided a substantial part of the empirical basis on which this treatment has been categorized as an "efficacious and specific treatment" (Baucom, Shoham, Meuser, Daiuto, & Stickle, 1998). Yet, dissatisfied with the magnitude of change brought about by this treatment, Neil worked to develop what he believed was a more truly behavioral and more powerful treatment, Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (Jacobson & Christensen, 1996). In the area of depression treatment, he conducted clinical trials that provided evidence for the impact of marital therapy on depression (Jacobson, Dobson, Fruzzetti, Schmaling, & Salusky, 1991; Jacobson, Fruzzetti, Dobson, Whisman, & Hops, 1993) and that challenged the putative power and mechanisms of cognitive behavior therapy (Jacobson et al., 1996). At the time of his death, he had developed a behavioral approach to depression, behavioral activation, which he believed was a powerful treatment for depression. His development of a metric for measuring clinical significance (Jacobson & Truax, 1991) was a major contribution to treatment research in general as well as to treatment for couple problems and depression. In the domestic violence area, he conducted some groundbreaking research that contributed to a typology of males who batter their wives and girlfriends (Jacobson & Gottman, 1998). As a result of these and other contributions, Neil established himself as an undisputed leader in the three areas of couple therapy, depression treatment, and domestic violence. Anyone who achieves in a full career what he did in any one of these three areas would have reason to be proud. That he achieved this much in so short a lifetime is truly phenomenal.

Neil's professional contributions go well beyond his data and his ideas. At his core, Neil was an incredibly social being; he worked best in concert with others, and almost all of his articles were coauthored. All of his articles chosen for this special issue have 6 to 8 authors, some colleagues, some graduate students, but all collaborators. In his current depression grant, he collaborated with Keith Dobson, Steve Hollon, and David Dunner. He began his domestic violence research with Amy Holtzworth-Munroe and conducted it with John Gottman. He conducted his current marital research with me. It was impossible to work with him and not be challenged and energized.

It was not only colleagues who found him a source of energy and stimulation. He was a dynamic and inspiring teacher, able to excite students about research and scholarship. Each one of his three major research areas relied heavily on graduate students, who usually went on to academic careers of their own. In fact, the data on placement of his graduate students is nothing short of phenomenal. Of the 13 students who did their dissertations with him in the last 12 years, 11 went on to academic careers. Of the other two students, one is in a clinical research position and the other has gone on to law school at Harvard. Who can match that record?

Neil loved his work. He often talked to me about his various schemes to deal efficiently with the mundane demands of work (e.g., professional correspondence, media requests) so that he could have more time to write; or he would talk to me of his schemes to deal with his sleep schedule so that he could work at night or early in the morning, his most productive time. At his memorial service, his colleague Keith Dobson recalled the adage that no one on his death bed wishes he had one more day at the office or wishes he could write one more publication. Keith then suggested that Neil may have been an exception.

Perhaps he was an exception. There was so much left that Neil wanted to say. He was excited about a new treatment for depression that he was testing (behavioral activation) and about a new trade book on this treatment, for which he had just written a book proposal. He was enthusiastic about our treatment for couple discord, Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy, and was excited about a paper we had written on a pilot study of that treatment (Jacobson, Christensen, Prince, Cordova, & Eldridge, 2000), as well as our trade book for couples that was soon to appear (Christensen & Jacobson, 2000). He viewed it as his professional mission to educate the population in general, and the professional community specifically, about domestic violence. Ever the clinical researcher, he was pursuing the possibility of an outcome study for the treatment of domestic violence with the court system of Seattle, Washington, at the time of his death.

We can only wonder what he would have written and said had he lived. How many more articles and books would he have published? How many more presentations and workshops would he have done? But more importantly, how many more provocative ideas and data would he have generated? In what directions would he have moved the field? How many more bright, young graduate students would he have inspired?

Although Neil can no longer speak or write, we can. In this memorial issue, published on the anniversary of his death, we honor him by reprinting three pieces of his work and providing commentary on them. I asked two or three colleagues of Neil's in each of his three major areas of contribution to select what they felt was his most influential and important piece of work and provide a commentary on it. Keith Dobson and Steve Hollon selected his 1996 component analysis of cognitive therapy for depression (Jacobson et al., 1996). John Gottman, Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, and Gayla Margolin selected his 1994 analysis of arguments between women and their violent husbands (Jacobson et al., 1994). Don Baucom and I selected his classic 1984 article in which he applied the clinical significance metric that he and his colleagues developed to four data sets on marital therapy outcome (Jacobson et al., 1984). Interestingly, all of these articles were published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the preeminent journal for clinical psychologists and a journal in which Neil took much more than his share of space.

At his death, Neil had two major, active research grants going, one on marital therapy and one on the treatment of depression. Neil had a knack for selecting top-notch graduate students; then he would turn over major responsibility to them for running his projects. Sona Dimidjian was a key graduate student on his depression grant, and I asked her to write a piece on Neil as a teacher of research on depression and as a teacher of his behavioral treatment for depression. Sara Berns was a key graduate student on Neil's marital therapy grant, and I asked her to write a piece on Neil as a teacher of research on marital therapy and as a supervisor of marital therapy. To provide a picture of Neil as a teacher of research on domestic violence, Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, who is a former graduate student of Neil's, included in her piece a remembrance of Neil as her supervisor.

Thus, for each of Neil's three areas of research, we have reprinted one major article. There are two commentaries on each article, one from an insider's perspective of a coauthor and one from an outsider's perspective. There is also a perspective on Neil as a teacher in each area from a current or former graduate student of his.

Neil was first and foremost a marital therapy researcher, and his interest in domestic violence grew out of his interest in couples. Similarly, his interest in depression was spawned initially by the linkage between marital distress and depression. Therefore, we first present his article on marital therapy research, followed by commentaries, then his article on domestic violence with commentaries, and finally, his article on depression, with commentaries.

In this way, we hope to underscore Neil's contribution to marital therapy, domestic violence, and depression treatment, as well as to honor a great scholar whose untimely passing has affected us all.

References