Edward A. Mason, 88; made psychiatry documentaries

EDWARD MASON

In documentary films he produced covering complicated, often moving themes, Dr. Edward Allen Mason wanted students of psychiatry to understand facets of the field that could not be gleaned from textbooks.

While many previous films in the genre used actors as patients, the Harvard Medical School professor made films that featured real patients struggling with numerous problems.

"He wanted to really document what students were not able to see," said his wife Jean.

Dr. Mason, who launched a film program at Harvard Medical School and created more than 60 films that documented a range of subjects, later helped to create a cooperative residential complex, Cambridge Co-Housing, where he lived his final 10 years. Dr. Mason died Dec. 26 at Mount Auburn Hospital from pneumonia following a stroke. He was 88.

In his 1962 film "Children in the Hospital," he sought to show the psychological effects of hospitalization on sick children, particularly the effects of policies that did not allow parents to be at their side.

Two years later, Dr. Mason started the medical school's film program to create documentaries used in the classroom.

After spending a summer at Wediko Children's Services, a Boston nonprofit agency that works with children with special needs, he put together one of his most widely viewed films, "Boys in Conflict." It focused on one counselor who worked with the youngsters.

In doing the films, "he didn't direct," his wife said. "He just believed in having the real words and feelings of the person in the film come out. He would simply follow people around."

And in dealing with patients, "he always was careful to get permission, to be sure that they were treated respectfully," she added.

Dr. Mason was born in Elmira, N.Y., and moved to St. Louis when he was about 9. He studied at Williams College for two years before earning a bachelor's degree from Washington University in 1941. He earned his medical degree in 1944.

He did his psychiatric training at McLean Hospital in 1945 and was sent to fulfill military duty at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, a center for returning World War II veterans. He was discharged as a captain in 1948 and completed more training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Judge Baker Children's Center.

As he began to shift to film, he earned the nickname, "the psycho-cinematologist."

In one film, he documented the launch of a support group for widows, which helped to spark an increase in the number of similar support groups around the country.

Another film captured the experience of adult children of Holocaust survivors talking with their parents about their ordeals. The moving, hour-long film aired on local television and at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Mason taught and treated patients until the 1980s, when he shifted to focusing on video making, his family said.

For many years he chaired the film program of the American Psychiatric Association, where he was a life fellow.

His interest in visual arts spilled over into a penchant for taking photographs from his earlier years, digitizing them and then artfully playing around with the photos on a computer program to create images that looked like paintings.

In 1995, Dr. Mason and his wife joined efforts with a multigenerational group of Cambridge residents seeking to build the co-housing complex, modeled on a Denmark community. Co-housing consists of private dwellings supplemented by extensive common facilities.

"They were real parental figures and an inspiration to the whole project, and not only in getting it built, but in living there," his daughter, Andrea Nolin, of Belmont said of her parents.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Dr. Mason leaves another daughter, Julia Feudo of Lancaster; a son, Jeff of Bainbridge Island, Wash.; three granddaughters; and two grandsons.

A memorial celebration will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge.