Beginning to practice psychiatry, Rosenfels also studied with
Franz Alexander, a former student of
Sigmund Freud, at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. He became licensed as a
psychoanalyst. He served as a Lt. Colonel in the Medical Corps during World War II. After his return, he taught as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, particularly in psychiatry and law. Rosenfels rapidly developed a successful private practice and was especially effective in helping women. He lectured at the
University of Chicago on psychiatry and the law. After achieving these successes, he became more interested in working to develop larger ideas about human nature, rather than be constrained by details of diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses.
Science of human nature Rosenfels began to feel that he did not belong in the academic fraternity. He was interested in the larger views of philosophers such as
Bertrand Russell and
David Hume, who held that the most important task for moral philosophers was the founding of a
science of human nature. Rosenfels believed that it was insufficient to focus on the physiology of the nervous system and rejected the idea that concepts such as love and power could not be studied by scientific methods. After serving in the military, Rosenfels accepted a job as Chief Psychiatrist, Reception-Guidance Center of the Department of Corrections, State of California. He had to leave as he did not have a medical license in California.
Gay Magazine described Rosenfels as "the Giant of the New Free Gay Culture." Some of his clients in therapy became students of his thinking. In 1973 he, Dean Hannotte, and their students opened The Ninth Street Center on the
Lower East Side, an all-volunteer organization devoted to helping unconventional people live creatively in the world. It initially attracted many young gay men. As the Center slowly matured, its members served a growing community of lesbians, as well as gay men, and straight people. Their clients included people who believed that human potential, in the words of one of their pamphlets, was "too important to leave to professionals." ==Works==