Subject files

Restrictions: One folder of individually identifiable patient information is restricted. There is also one folder with a restricted ABPP exam review.

Abstract: Materials regarding Dr. Mary Cerney's professional interests and some of her work with the Menninger Foundation. Two major topics are schizophrenia and grief. Other topics include the patient follow-up projects, psychopathology, against medical advice (AMA), psychological background for topics in everyday life (e.g. love, leadership, friendship, etc.), psychotherapy, family and family therapy, group therapy, Rorschach psychology and other kinds of psychological testing, psychoanalysis, dreams and psychoanalysis, transference, terminating therapy, the treatment process and hospital care, violence, Cerney's own career, teaching at the Menninger School of Psychiatry, neuropsychology, pharmapsychology, supervsision and personnel management, Dr. Karl Menninger, and other topics.

Types of documents and materials found in Dr. Cerney's papers include guidelines and manuals, instructions, testing blanks and sample forms, article reprints and other reference materials, copies of presentations as well as handouts and aids (by Cerney herself and by her colleagues), popular articles and news clippings, notes, drafts of documents (sometimes with corrections), workshop and conference attendance materials, some memoranda and correspondence, course materials (e.g. schedules, outlines, syllabi), book reviews by Dr. Cerney, charts and graphs, etc.

Biog. Sketch (Full): Mary Ellen Stephen Cerney was born 23 April 1929 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Stephen and Mary Neigot Cerney. In 1946 she joined the Sisters of St. Francis in Tiffin, Ohio. From 1948 to 1962 she taught as an elementary school teacher and music teacher in the parochial and public schools of northwestern Ohio.

In 1960 Sister Mary completed her bachelors summa cum laude from the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. In 1962 she earned her masters, and in 1965 her PhD, both from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Cerney continued in an educational capacity during and for a while after her studies, serving as a fellow and summer school instructor with the Catholic University of America; an instructor in educational psychology at Mary Manse College in Toledo, Ohio, at St. Francis College in Joliet, and at Madonna College in Livonia, Michigan; and a directress of juniorate for the Sisters of St. Franics in Tiffin.

In 1969 Cerney came to Topeka, Kansas to begin post-doctoral work in clinical psychology at the Topeka State Hospital. She remained to perform more post-doctoral work in clinical psychology with the Menninger Foundation, and in 1972 she was hired as a staff psychologist, hospital therapist, and psychotherapist with Menninger. She also worked in and taught through the Menninger School of Psychiatry, and she served in a consultant capacity to a number of organizations, including the Sisters of St. Francis in Tiffin, the Chidren's House - Montesoiri School in east Topeka, and Catholic Social Services of Topeka.

Cerney was a student with the Topeka Institute of Psychoanalysis beginning in 1976. She was organist and music director for the Most Pure Heart of Mary Church in Topeka and she held memberships in many professional societies, including the American Psychological Association, the Ohio Psychological Association, the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA), the Council for the Advancement of Psychoanalytic Education, Psychologists Interested in the Study of Psychoanalysis, the American Guild of Organists, and the International Graphoanalysis Society.

In 1993 Dr. Cerney went into private practice, giving psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, grief therapy, and hypnosis to patients while continuing to teach through the KMSP. Her professional interests and research lay in the application of mental health principles to daily living; testing research, particularly the Rorschach test; and she was heavily involved in follow-up patient studies at Menninger.

Dr. Mary Cerney died 19 February 1996 in Topeka and was buried in Tiffin.

Restrictions: One folder of individually identifiable patient information is restricted. There is also one folder with a restricted ABPP exam review.