Dr. Bartemeier was born in Muscatine, Iowa, educated at St. Mary’s Jesuit School (1913), receiving his A.B. (1914) and M.A. (1916) from the Catholic University of America, and his M.D. (1920) from Georgetown University Medical School. His internship took place at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where his interest in neurology and psychiatry was aroused, and he spent the next two years at the Phipps Clinic with Dr. Adolph Meyer.
In 1926, he entered private practice and, in 1930, trained at the Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Bartemeier taught psychiatry at Wayne State University School of Medicine, served as Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, Director of Postgraduate Education at the Pontiac State Hospital, and held various other teaching posts. He served as an advisor to the Veterans Administration, Chairman of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation’s Conference on Problems of Infancy and Childhood, as well as many other organizational activities.
Dr. Bartemeier was a consultant to the U.S. Army during WWII, the World Health Organization, a member of the Executive Board of the World Federation for Mental Health, and President of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1944–45), the International Psychoanalytic Association (1949–51), and the Detroit Psychoanalytic Association (1940–46).
In 1954, Dr. Bartemeier became Medical Director of the Seton Institute, served as a consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health (1952–61), and was an early member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP).
Dr. Bartemeier served as President of the American Psychiatric Association (1951–52).