Psyche for Psychology

PAULA SOBOL

"In Our Midst" highlights members of Phoenix's Jewish community. This column features Dr. Mathilde Canter, who will be awarded the Life Achievement Award by the Brooklyn College Alumni Association on Sept. 21.

Dr. Mathilde Canter is a gifted raconteur. Her description of events and people in her life is engrossing, filled with small details and remembrances that draw the listener into her world. Her recollection of life in Brooklyn, where she was born, is replete with memories of her home and her family which had an enormous influence on "Mattie," as she is known to family and friends.

"My mother, father, brother and sisters and I loved each other," Canter says. "We enjoyed spending time together, which was something orchestrated by my father. As a result, we grew up with a common sense of values and ethical responses to society and an acceptance of diversity.

"Education was of prime importance in my home as was music, theater, reading and doing things for other people. My grandmother lived with us and although my father and mother weren't religious, our home was kosher throughout Grandma's life because that was important to her."

Canter went to Brooklyn College where she received her bachelor's degree in sociology, and went on for a master's degree in that discipline, but before she could finish she met and married Aaron Canter, who had completed his master's degree in psychology from Columbia University. They married in 1944 and Mattie promised her parents that one day she would complete her graduate degree.

Aaron went into the Army and eventually was posted to Nashville, Tenn., where Mattie got a job as a butcher's assistant. They moved to Kentucky and Mattie left "the field of meat preparation" and went to work at the Jewish Big Brothers of Cincinnati which was across the river from Fort Thomas, where the Canters were stationed. After postings in California and Washington, D.C., Aaron left the service and returned to New York and went to Teacher's College at Columbia University for his Ph.D. By 1949, they were ready for a change and moved to Phoenix, where son Steven was born in 1950. They lived in an apartment on 24th Street and Harvard but soon bought a home, as Mattie puts it, "...far out in the country, 47th Street off Thomas Road." As soon as they moved into their new home, daughter Shelley was born.

When the children were in school, Mattie went back to Arizona State University to "take a few courses just for fun." After several semesters, her adviser pointed out that one research course and comprehensive exams were all she needed for her master's degree in sociology. Mattie elatedly called her parents and crowed, "See, I told you I'd finish!"

Then Mattie decided to take some psychology courses that interested her and within a year decided to get her Ph.D. She became one of the first two women to receive that designation for psychology. She is the oldest living Ph.D. graduate in the psychology department at the school.

A post-doctoral fellowship followed, after which she opened a private practice in the Park Central Medical Building and soon became a consultant to the juvenile court. Mattie and Aaron shared the Park Central office and soon moved to the Grunow Clinic on McDowell and 10th Street. Aaron had started the Community Mental Health Center at Good Samaritan Hospital, and when he finished his work there, the couple moved to an office which now houses Vincent's restaurant.

The Canters were early members of the Chamber Music Society, and Mattie tells the story about entertaining the Warsaw Piano Quintet at a cook out on Piestewa (then Squaw) Peak. One of their guests was Vladislaw Spielmann. She was astounded when she went to see "The Pianist," and realized that this was the man who raved about Aaron's steaks so long ago.

Mattie had joined Hadassah when she moved to Phoenix and became the vice president of membership for the group. She also joined the American Psychological Association (APA) in the 1970s, and her first job was on their membership committee, then as treasurer and finally as president of the Division of Psychotherapy for APA. Aaron and she traveled extensively until 1989, when Aaron became ill. At that time, she cut back her practice and still was an important mentor for many younger psychologists.

Aaron died in 1995. Mattie continued her practice and became even more involved in APA. In 1988, she was a member of the group's ethics committee and became its chairwoman in 1990. She was also chairwoman of the Arizona Board of Psychologist's Examiners (the licensing board). The national job with APA kept Mattie traveling on a regular basis.

In 2000, Mattie was the recipient of the Year 2000 APA Award for Distinguished Contribution to Applied Psychology as a Professional Practice.

In 2002, Mattie received the APA Foundation Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology.

When asked the advice she would give young professionals, she responds, "I would urge them to be respectful of others and their differences, to be honest and have integrity and to be true to themselves as well as others."

Paula Sobol is a 52-year Phoenix resident.

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