Early Life and Career
Gardner was born in The Bronx on April 28, 1931 and graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University and the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, also serving as the director of child psychiatry in the United States Army medical corps while in Germany. Gardner was married to, then subsequently divorced Lee Gardner, with whom he had three children (Andrew, Nancy and Julie). Later he was a partner of Natalie Weiss.
Gardner had a private practice and held an unpaid position as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Gardner authored 85 articles in peer review journals, numerous books and testified in more than 400 child custody cases (one of which was the Wee Care Nursery School ritual abuse case). In 1970 when divorce was becoming more common in the United States, Gardner wrote Boys and Girls Book About Divorce to provide children with suggestions on how to cope with the situation, and in 1973 he created one of the first board games for use in child psychotherapy.
Read more about this topic: Richard A. Gardner
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