David Kantor, (b. 1927) is an American systems psychologist, organizational consultant, and clinical researcher. He is the founder of three research and training institutes and the author of numerous books and articles, including Inside the Family co-Authored with William Lehr. His work has made a significant contribution to the fields of family systems and organizational consultation theory and practice.
He has taught and trained thousands of students at institutions including Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, the Kantor Family Institute, and Northeastern University, and has also been the recipient of multiple grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He is currently a Thought Leader and partner at Monitor Group, an international business strategy consulting group, where he directs Monitor Kantor Enterprises.
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David Kantor received his B.A. and M.A. from Brooklyn College in 1950 and 1952, respectively, and received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1963.
Beginning in 1956, he was a Lecturer at Harvard University’s Department of Social Relations. Kantor's innovative research methods while at Harvard included creating halfway houses where students lived with and studied patients full-time, and placing healthy students in mental hospitals (disguised as patients) to directly study treatment of patients and the condition of mental hospitals. His work on the negative effects of institutionalizing patients was instrumental in the movement to shift psychological and psychiatric care toward more effective and beneficial treatment methods where appropriate.
After Harvard, Kantor was an Assistant Professor of Clinical psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine from 1965–1975, during which time he also served as first Director of Psychological Research (1966–1969), Director, Center for Training in Family Therapy (1968–1975), and Chief Psychologist (1969–1975) at Boston State Hospital. He also founded the Boston Family Institute in 1967 and the Family Institute of Cambridge in 1974. During this time, David’s research was highlighted on the Chicago Channel 11 WTTW.
In 1980 David founded the Kantor Family Institute, a postgraduate training center for therapists and organizational consultants and served as its Director for twenty years. During this time David expanded his focus on systems theory to include businesses and other organizations, and also developed his “Theory of Theories.” He worked with Monitor Group (then Monitor Company) as a special consultant and project consultant during 1991–1993. He also acted as a research consultant to the Dialogue Project at the Organizational Learning Center of the MIT Sloan School of Management.
In 2001, Kantor joined Monitor Group to develop a new model and theory of leadership to facilitate the evolution of leaders at Monitor and for Monitor’s clients. One of his key developments is the Leadership Model Building (LMB) program utilized by both Monitor’s senior leadership and Monitor’s most important clients. Within Monitor, David is the Head of Monitor Kantor Enterprises (MKE), a business unit whose products help clients develop the necessary organizational leadership and team dynamics capabilities to execute their organizations’ strategies. Clients have cited MKE’s products and approach as highly influential and essential in helping them make critical decisions and successfully navigate some of their business’s most extreme challenges.
Kantor is married to Meredith Winter and is the father of five children. He lives in Cambridge, MA. He owned a bookstand in Harvard Square in the 1960s that was pulled behind a donkey.