Dr. Whitaker was a native of Syracuse, NY, where he attended high school, university, and medical school. Whitaker received his M.D. from Syracuse University in 1936. After a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Whitaker began to work in 1938 in a psychiatric hospital, and soon became fascinated by the challenge of treating people suffering of schizophrenia. Observing that some patients seemed to recover only to have their problems re-emerge when they returned to their families, Dr. Whitaker began to focus on treating the whole family rather than the one patient.