Died 2006 | ||
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Dr. Leonard Neff (1925–2006) was a psychiatrist noted for his groundbreaking work on the condition now known as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as his involvement in and successful resolution of a high-profile hostage event which took place in Los Angeles, California in 1974 and in which three people were held at gunpoint by a Vietnam veteran who was experiencing a flashback to his wartime experiences.
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Work with veterans
Neff was a founding member of the Vietnam Veteran's Working Group, a group of mental health professionals who met at a meeting of the American Psychological Association in Anaheim, California in the early 1970s and who believed that veterans of the Vietnam War often experienced a unique set of psychological problems that were not being addressed by the greater mental health care community. In her 2005 autobiography My Life So Far, Jane Fonda describes Neff's work with Vietnam veterans, along with that of fellow psychiatrists Drs. Robert Lifton, Shaim Shatan, and Sharah Haley, as "tireless and empathetic".
The 1974 hostage event
In 1974 a 22-year-old Vietnam veteran named Johnny Gabron escaped from the Brentwood, California Veteran's Administration hospital while having a flashback to his combat experiences in Viet Nam. He took three people hostage at gunpoint in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and subsequently demanded to speak to his psychiatrist, Dr. Neff. Neff was flown in by helicopter (police blockades and news coverage caused the area of the city around the park to become gridlocked soon after incident began), and three hours later was able to end the armed standoff without incident. The issue brought to increasing public awareness the reality of PTSD.