AN EVENING WITH DR. HIP - EUGENE SCHOENFELD, M.D.

Friday Night January 18th 2013 7pm door 8:00 PM Talk

Eugene Schoenfeld is best known for his pioneering Dr. Hip Pocrates newspaper columns and radio programs dealing with previously taboo subjects, like sexuality or the effects of psychoactive drugs. He was born to immigrant parents in the Bronx on St. Patrick's Day, 1935. Schoenfeld is related to Arnold Rothstein (who fixed the 1919 World Series and is a prominent character in the 'Boardwalk Empire' HBO series), and there were family connections to Legs Diamond and Meyer Lansky. But his father was a leftist union organizer and Eugene was a Red Diaper baby. His first steps were on picket lines. He was given the name 'Eugene' after the socialist Eugene Debs. And Eugene Schoenfeld's middle name is Lenin.



During much of his childhood, Schoenfeld traveled the country with family friends on communist-affiliated union organizing activities. After checking into hotels, the adults would routinely look behind wall hangings and beneath lamps for hidden microphones.



In 1947, the Schoenfelds moved to Florida, where Eugene's father became a successful plumbing contractor, who sometimes grumbled about the unions he dealt with. Eugene graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1952 and the University of California at Berkeley in 1955. He returned to Florida to enroll at the University of Miami School of Medicine. While there, he met Gregory Hemingway, youngest son of Ernest, and was invited to join a photographic safari in Angola in the summer of 1959. Later that summer, he visited the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in West Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) and was invited by Dr. Schweitzer to return the following summer. In 1960, he delivered his first baby, tutored by a South African mid-wife.



After graduating medical school, Schoenfeld interned at Berkeley's Herrick Hospital. Then, convinced by his African experiences of the value of public health measures, he obtained a Master of Public Health degree at Yale University. He returned to the Schweitzer Hospital in Gabon in 1965-66. During this time, he observed and participated in ibogaine ceremonies, conducted as part of the Biwiti religion by a native doctor named N'Goua Michel. Ibogaine, a psychedelic extracted from the T. Iboga plant, is thought by many to have unique properties for treating addictions. After leaving Africa, Schoenfeld obtained a supply of ibogaine from a French pharmaceutical company and conducted experiments with Dr. David Smith at the University of California at San Francisco in the summer of 1966. Subsequently, Smith had the idea to form the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics and Schoenfeld resolved to write about the effects of mind-altering drugs.



He had this opportunity when Max Scher, publisher of the Berkeley Barb asked him to write a question and answer medical column for the fledgling weekly. And it was Max who suggested the pen name of Hip Pocrates. The first Hip Pocrates column appeared in March 1967. It was the time of the hippies. There was a hunger for non-judgemental information about the effects of drugs and sexuality, sometimes in combination. At the time, such information could not be found in media sources such as newspapers or radio. In addition to his newspaper columns, which were soon syndicated, Schoenfeld began answering medical questions live on the radio, the first physician ever to do so. The DJ he initially worked with was Howard Hessman, who went on to play the fictional DJ Johnny Fever in the syndicated TV series 'KRP In Cincinnati'.


At the end of 1967, Schoenfeld met Timothy Leary and became a friend and family doctor for Timothy, his children, and wife Rosemary. Later, Schoenfeld visited Tim and Rosemary when they were exiled in Switzerland. After Tim was captured and returned to the USA, Schoenfeld visited him in various prisons as his doctor.


Some of the other patient/friends Schoenfeld is permitted to reveal include David Crosby, Hunter Thompson, Jerry Garcia, and Eddie Fisher.

Schoenfeld stopped writing the Dr. Hip columns in 1979. He then joined a group of emergency medicine doctors working on the Thai-Cambodian border during the 'Killing Fields' Pol Pot era. From 1993-96, he did the live weekly'Modern Rock Doc' question and answer program for radio station 105.3 FM (LIVE 105) in San Francisco.


He has published four books. His first book, 'Dear Dr. Hip Pocrates' was named by the New York Times as one of the best non-fiction books of 1969.



Today, Eugene Schoenfeld practices psychiatry and addiction medicine in Sausalito. His practice includes medical marijuana recommendations. He frequently consults with attorneys as an expert witness. He is a member of the court-appointed psychiatry panels for the Superior Courts of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and San Francisco Counties. Occasionally, he writes articles for the SF Chronicle.

He believes his greatest and most rewarding adventure began May 24, 2012 when his wife Lanie gave birth to their daughter, Heather Lynn Schoenfeld.

After Dr. Schoenfeld speaks about 'My Life, So Far', he will be glad to do what he has done for so many years - answer questions from the audience.

ART HOUSE GALLERY & CULTURAL CENTER
2905 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley CA 94705
510-472-3170 info.

Door is 7:00 Talk begins at 8:00
$10.00 Admission at door
Wheelchair Accessible
All ages