William Alanson White
William Alanson White(24 January 1870 – 7 March 1937)[1]was an Americanneurologistandpsychiatrist.
Biography
[edit]He was born inBrooklyn,New Yorkto parents Alanson White and Harriet Augusta Hawley White.[2]He attended public school in Brooklyn. A young White was influenced by philosopherHerbert Spencer;After White's death, one writer recalled that White "was never seriously shaken from Spencer's hopeful evolutionary catechism, which at the age of 13 he had accepted as the key to all knowledge".[2]
At 15, White enteredCornell,studying there from 1885 to 1889. In 1891, White graduated with anM.D.from theLong Island College Hospital.[3]After serving as an intern for a year, for nine years he was an assistantphysicianat theBinghamton (New York)State Hospital. There he collaborated withBoris Sidis.[1]
On October 1, 1903, White became superintendent of the "Government Hospital for the Insane", later namedSt. Elizabeths Hospital,inWashington, D.C.There he spent the rest of his career.[1]Also in 1903, he accepted the post ofprofessorof nervous andmental diseasesatGeorgetown University,and in 1904 a similarchairatGeorge Washington University,lecturing besides at theArmy Medical School.[3]
In 1913, White co-foundedThe Psychoanalytic Review.From 1915 to 1917, White was president of the American Psychoanalytical Society; he returned to role from 1927 to 1929.[2]In 1917, the hospital was formally renamed St. Elizabeth's.[2]
In March 1918, White married Lola Thurston, the widow of SenatorJohn Mellen Thurston.[2] White was president of theAmerican Psychopathological Societyin 1922, of theAmerican Psychiatric Associationin 1924–25.[4]He took an interest in forensic psychology, and worked for better cooperation between the American Psychiatric Association and theAmerican Bar Association.[1]He testified for the defense in theLeopold and Loebtrial.[5]
In December 1922, St. Elizabeth's became the first hospital in the US to employpyrotherapyfor the treatment of late-state syphilis.[2]White approved the use of insulin shock therapy at St. Elizabeth's.[2]
In 1930, St. Elizabeth's was the only mental hospital in the United States with an American Medical Association-accredited internship.[2] St Elizabeth's was investigated by Congress three different times: first in 1906, again in 1917-18, and finally in 1926.[2]
In 1934, he was the main speaker at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Papers summarized: "Man's future lays in a new understanding of the meaning of heredity and environment in the application of new scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry and biology to the fields of psychology, and in the significant way in which man's 'very highly developed self-regard functions'". He was followed by a speech by Albert Einstein.[6]
Lola (Purman) Thurston, whom he married in 1918, and a stepdaughter survived him when he died in Washington in March 1937.[1]
Works
[edit]- Mental Mechanisms(1911)
- Outlines of Psychiatry(fifth edition, revised, 1915)
- Diseases of the Nervous System(1915) Done in collaboration withSmith Ely Jelliffe.
- The Principles of Mental Hygiene(1917)
- Mechanisms of Character Formation(1920)
- Foundations of Psychiatry(1921)
- Essays in Psychopathology(1925)
- The Meaning of Disease(1926)
Legacy
[edit]During White's tenure as superintendent, St. Elizabeths, which served Federal employees, military personnel, and residents of the District of Columbia, underwent significant reforms. What previously had operated as a warehouse for the insane came to provide occupational therapy and psychotherapy. White did away with straitjackets for restraint and opened a beauty parlor for the female patients.[7]For two years in the 1920s, White opened the doors of St. Elizabeths toAlfred Korzybski,enabling Korzybski to directly study mental illness, research that contributed heavily to Korzybski's 1933Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics.Korzybski characterized White as "extremely brilliant, very [well] read, very creative, very human, very warm, and very much interested in the future of psychiatry altogether."[8]
White is the namesake of theWilliam Alanson White Institutepsychoanalytic clinic in New York City.
Notes
[edit]- ^abcdeWinfred Overholser (1958). "White, William Alanson".Dictionary of American Biography.Vol. Supplement Two. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- ^abcdefghiWilliam Alanson White: The Washington Years, 1903-1937: The Contributions to Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Mental Health by Dr. White While Superintendent of Saint Elizabeths Hospital.U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration. 1976.
- ^abRines, George Edwin, ed. (1920)..Encyclopedia Americana.
- ^Marilyn Bardsley."Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb".crimelibrary.trutv.com.Retrieved1 April2013.
- ^Clarence Darrow (defense lawyer),The Story of My Life(autobiography).
- ^"Dec 28, 1934, page 2 - Times Union at Newspapers.com".Newspapers.com.
- ^Kodish, Bruce I. (2011).Korzybski: A Biography.Pasadena, CA: Extensional Publishing. p. 258.ISBN978-0-9700664-0-4.
- ^Kodish.Korzybski: A Biography.p. 262.
References
[edit]- Lucy D. Ozarin (January 1999)."William A. White, M.D.: A Distinguished Achiever".Psychiatric News.Retrieved20 August2010.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Colby, F.; Williams, T., eds. (1916). "White, William Alanson".New International Encyclopedia(2nd ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
External links
[edit]- Works by or about William Alanson Whiteat theInternet Archive
Works by or aboutWilliam Alanson WhiteatWikisource
