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Elmer Ernest Southard

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Elmer Ernest Southard
portrait of Southard
BornJuly 28, 1876
Boston,Massachusetts
DiedFebruary 8, 1920(1920-02-08)(aged 43)
New York City
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard Medical School
Scientific career
FieldsNeuropsychiatry
Neuropathology
InstitutionsBoston Psychopathic Hospital

Elmer Ernest (E. E.) Southard(July 28, 1876 – February 8, 1920) was an Americanneuropsychiatrist,neuropathologist,professor and author. Born inBoston, Massachusetts,Southard lived in the city for nearly his entire life. He attendedBoston Latin Schooland completed his education atHarvard University.At Harvard, Southard distinguished himself as a chess player. After briefly studying in Germany, he returned to the United States as a pathologist atDanvers State Hospital.Southard held academic appointments at Harvard University and itsmedical school.

He headed theBoston Psychopathic Hospitalwhen it opened in 1912, pioneering the study of brain pathology with particular interests inshell shockandschizophrenia.Southard published several books, includingShell Shock and Other Neuropsychiatric Problemswith nearly 1,000 case histories. He was president of theAmerican Medico-Psychological Associationand the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, and held advisory positions with theU.S. Chemical Warfare Serviceand theEugenics Record Office.

An influential mentor, Southard guided several well-known figures in medicine and psychology. He worked with neuropathologistMyrtelle Canavanearly in her career, and used his influence to obtain a promotion for her in Boston. Southard introducedKarl Menningerto psychiatry, and Menninger later helped establish thefoundationwhich bears his family name. Comparative psychologistRobert Yerkescalled Southard "my master of psychopathology."[1]

Southard was married to physician andWellesley Collegeprofessor Mabel Fletcher Austin, and they had three children. His interest in chess continued throughout his life, and he enjoyed intellectual gatherings at the home of art collector and friendWalter Arensberg.At the age of 43, Southard died ofpneumoniain 1920 during a trip to New York City to deliver lectures to two medical societies.

Early life

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Southard was born in Boston in 1876 to Martin Southard and Olive Wentworth Knowles. His paternal ancestors included Mayflower passenger andPlymouth ColonyleaderMyles Standish.Olive Southard was descended from early residents of New Hampshire and Maine.[2]Frederick Parker Gay,one of E. E. Southard's longtime friends and his posthumous biographer, wrote that Southard's parents were only modestly successful academically. His mother was a schoolteacher for several years; his father, who supervised a cotton-waste factory and established a trucking business, earned enough money to ensure that Southard did not have to work during his undergraduate and graduate studies.[3]

Southard's mother said that once he learned to read, he took full responsibility for his education.[4]He was influenced academically by a paternal aunt, a Greek scholar who had graduated fromOberlin College.One of his cousins was a prominent attorney inBath, England.[3]Southard attended Boston Latin School, where his father, aunt and headmaster Arthur Irving Fiske sparked a lifelong interest in language and the meaning of words.[5]Despite a tall, solid build and walking about 4 miles (6.4 km) a day to school, he was awkward at manual labor and athletics.[6]Southard graduated from Boston Latin School in 1893 with awards for reading and essay-writing.[7]

He received aBachelor of Artsdegree fromHarvard Collegein 1897. As an undergraduate, Southard's path was shaped by several notable faculty members. He learned aboutcomparative anatomyand the nervous system from biologistGeorge Howard Parker,studied psychology underWilliam James,took a class in logic taught byJosiah Royce[8]and graduated with a degree inphilosophy.[9]Southard then entered Harvard Medical School; despite his previous academic success and aptitude for science he struggled in several courses focused onmedicine,receiving C's and a D.[10]

At Harvard, Southard was a noted chess player, and was described as Harvard's best player in an 1899 newspaper article on anIvy Leaguechess tournament: "It is probable that as long as he is engaged in the tournament, Harvard will win the cup."[11]Through the chess team he became lifelong friends withWalter Arensberg,who became a noted art collector.[12]

Southard received his medical degree in 1901.[11]In 1902, Southard went to Germany and studied medicine at theSenckenberg InstituteandHeidelberg Universityfor six months.[13][14]

Career

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Appointments

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Danvers State Hospital around 1893
Danvers State Hospital, where Southard held a faculty appointment early in his career
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After returning from Germany, Southard interned in pathology atBoston City Hospitaland became an instructor at Harvard Medical School in 1904. From 1906 to 1909, he was an assistant pathologist atDanvers State Hospital.Socially, he participated in theWicht Clubwith other young Harvard scholars beginning their careers.

In 1909 Southard was named assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University and Bullard Professor of Neuropathology at Harvard Medical School, titles he held until his death. That year, he also became a pathologist for the Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases.[13]

Southard and his laboratory assistant, Emma Mooers, contracted astreptococcalinfection during an autopsy in 1911. Mooers died[15]and Southard developedlymphangitisin his arm, undergoing aggressive surgery and recovering over several months. Although he wrote an outline of his autobiography and traveled extensively in Europe during his convalescence, he felt unable to concentrate on research and referred to this period as "the wasted year".[16]Southard led theBoston Psychopathic Hospital,which had opened as a department ofBoston State Hospital,from 1912 until his death.[13]

He served in a strategic advisory role with the U.S. ArmyChemical Warfare ServiceduringWorld War I,attaining the rank of major.[17]Southard was a past president of theAmerican Medico-Psychological Association,and was president of the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology at his death. Other professional memberships included theAmerican Genetic Association,the National Epilepsy Association, the American Association of Pathologists, theMassachusetts Medical Societyand the Society of Experimental Biology. He served in an editorial capacity for several publications, including theJournal of Nervous and Mental Disease.[13]

Southard was a member of the Board of Scientific Directors for theEugenics Record Office(ERO).[18]Led by biologistCharles Davenport,the ERO lobbied for state sterilization laws and restrictions on U.S. immigration. Public approval of the office waned during the 1930s (when eugenics became associated withNazism), and the ERO closed in 1939.[19]Southard coined the word "cacogenics"for the study of racial decline.[20]

Professional contributions

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Southard studied the organic basis of mental illness at a time when two camps of professionals (known informally as "brain spot men" and "mind twist men" )[21]debated the biological and behavioral origins of psychiatric disorders. His neuropathological perspective was eclipsed after his death by the "mind twist" hypothesis of mental illness promoted by thedynamic psychiatry(orpsychobiology) of Adolf Meyer and the psychoanalytic perspectives ofSigmund Freud,Carl JungandAlfred Adler.Although physiological theories of "autointoxication" were explored in U.S. psychiatry before 1940, Southard had rejected them many years earlier.[22]

During the World War I era, Southard conducted early studies ofshell shock.He believed that shell shock resulted from the mind's inability to align the sensory experiences of war with other life events. Southard said that this process, which could also have physical causes, resulted in disorientation and transformed the events of war into a mental condition.[23]InShell Shock and Other Neuropsychiatric Problems,he called the term "shell shock" advantageous because it "compared with the more acutely terrible and life-in-the-balance thing we know as traumatic or surgical shock."[24]The condition initially captured public interest, at least in part because it was said to be caused by a traumatic force to the head. Once shell shock was no longer thought to result from physical injuries, patients were stigmatized and arguments over its cause interfered with effective treatment.[24]

At the end of the war, Southard returned to Boston State Hospital and it was reorganized. He was relieved of his directorship at Boston Psychopathic and named director of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Institute, a unit of Boston Psychopathic. Free of his previous hospital administration duties, Southard was able to concentrate on research.[25]Southard delineated several priorities for his scientific work and writing. He hoped to publish four books; the first would cover observations from his research laboratory made between 1906 and 1919. The second book, on clinical work he had done at Boston Psychopathic since 1912, he hoped would increase enthusiasm for psychiatric hospitals. The third would report on the expansion of psychiatric social work, and the final work (a requirement of his academic post) would be an overview of neuropathology.[26]

Although Southard expressed a great deal of interest in research, he was most inclined to work on the classification, nomenclature and definition of psychiatric and philosophical concepts. He said he realized that such work was ridiculed by many, but a "psychiatric dictionary (to include definitions of every near-lying psychological and philosophical term also) would do more to push mental hygiene on than any other single thing I can think of."[26]Southard proposed an eleven-category classification system for psychiatric diagnoses, which was not adopted.[27]

He was particularly interested indementia praecox(which he favored renamingschizophrenia), and found diffuse anatomic differences in the brains of schizophrenic patients.[28]These changes were ignored or dismissed as artifactual by other investigators for several decades. Serious attention to Southard's findings did not reemerge in the medical literature until the 1990s, but changes in diagnostic criteria complicate the application of Southard's findings to modern schizophrenic patients.[29]Shortly before his death Southard wrote and presentedNon-dementia non-praecox: note on the advantages to mental hygiene of extirpating a term,but did not live to see it published.[28]

Southard and Mary Jarrett founded the field of psychiatric social work, applying psychiatry to industrial employees.The Kingdom of Evils,a book on psychiatric social work by Southard and Jarrett, was published after his death.[30]In his introduction to the book, physicianRichard Cabotwrote that it highlighted the collaboration between doctor and social worker; the physician excels at diagnosis, and the social worker is better able to provide resources for treatment.[31]

Influence

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E. E. Southard observing the work of Myrtelle Canavan
Southard and Myrtelle Canavan

At Danvers State Hospital Southard metMyrtelle Canavan,with whom he worked and published in neuropathology for the next few years. When Canavan received a tempting job offer from thePennsylvania Hospital for the Insane,in his capacity with the Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases, Southard petitioned the board to create a position for her as his assistant, and her salary was enough for her to refuse the Pennsylvania offer.[32]

Southard also mentoredKarl Menningerduring Menninger's internship at Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Menninger planned to join his father, general practitionerCharles Frederick Menninger,in practice. Southard steered Karl Menninger's interests toward mental health; theMenninger Foundationwas later established with a focus on psychiatry, and Karl Menninger became president of theAmerican Psychoanalytic Association.The Menninger family opened the Southard School, a teaching facility for mentally ill children, several years after Southard's death.[33]

Southard had considerable influence on the early career of comparative psychologistRobert Yerkes.[1]Working in the philosophy department at Harvard, Yerkes was passed over for promotions because he had only studied animals. Southard asked him to design mental testing techniques applicable to patients at the psychopathic hospital,[34]and Yerkes received a half-time appointment at Boston Psychopathic with Southard from 1913 to 1917. Shortly afterwards, Yerkes was elected president of theAmerican Psychological Associationand developed the U.S. Army's mental testing program during World War I.[1]In his autobiography, Yerkes called Southard "my master of psychopathology."[35]

Personal life

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refer to caption
Horace Austin,former governor of Minnesota and Southard's late father-in-law

In 1906 Southard married Mabel Fletcher Austin, aWellesley Collegemental-hygiene lecturer andJohns Hopkins Universitygraduate.[36]She was the daughter of former Minnesota governorHorace Austin.[37]Southard wrote to Frederic Parker Gay about the limitations his professional responsibilities placed on his marriage: "Mabel is her own cook, maid and bath steward, as for her being a wife, I have little or no time to be a husband."[38]

Southard had three children: a daughter, Anne, and two sons. His younger son, Ordway, was an early writer of English-languagehaiku[39]and published under several names, including O. Mabson Southard, O.M.B. Southard and Mabelsson Norway.[40]He was aCommunist Partycandidate in the 1942 Alabama gubernatorial election.[41]Southard's older son, Austin, developed schizophrenia and committed suicide several years after his father's death.[39]

The elder Southard's life was often busy and sleepless. According to L. Vernon Briggs, a colleague at Boston Psychopathic Hospital, Southard considered himselfhypomanic."He himself said that most people fell within one of the classifications of mental disease, and he felt himself to be of the manic-depressive type. We seldom saw the depressive side of him though it was undoubtedly there; ordinarily he appeared carried away with enthusiasm about his latest interest – and everything worthwhile interested him", Briggs wrote.[42]

Southard experienced chronic headaches and minor seizures (sometimes accompanied by partial vision loss for several hours), which he attributed to mental strain. A 1901 episode kept him in Boston City Hospital for a week, and Southard said he was diagnosed with "acute brain tire". A similar event several years later was diagnosed as vascular neurosis.[43]According to Gay, a physical examination several months before Southard's death may have indicated anendocrine glandproblem, but no specific condition was diagnosed.[44]

A member of two local chess clubs, Southard was described in hisNew York Timesobituary as "one of the foremost amateur chess players in America".[13]He often arrived at his laboratory after spending the night playing chess. After his death, in "metaphors more appropriate for a comet than a man",[42]friends described the intellect which allowed Southard to play up to six blind chess matches simultaneously.[45]At Danvers State Hospital, he introduced a move he called theDanvers Opening.[36]

Southard frequently traveled from Boston to New York City to participate in Walter Arensberg'ssalons,bringing scholarship to discussions of contemporary social science topics.[12]Arensberg was also friends with artists such asMarcel Duchamp.Southard analyzed the dreams of Arensberg's guests, and discussed the meaning of Duchamp's work with the artist.[46]Perhaps influenced by Arensberg and his friends, Southard began to writeexperimental poetry.[12]He was a member of theWicht Club,a social and intellectual group of young Harvard academics.[45]

Death

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Southard traveled to New York City on February 1, 1920, to lecture to medical societies. He spoke to the Society of Neurology of New York on February 3, and delivered a mental hygiene lecture at theNew York Academy of Medicinethe following day[13]before developingpneumoniaon February 5.[36]Despite care by threePresbyterian Hospitalphysicians at thePrince George Hotel,Southard died on February 8, at the age of 43.[47]

Canavan became the acting laboratory director at Boston Psychopathic after his death. In 1925 she publishedElmer Ernest Southard and His Parents: A Brain Study,following the postmortem dissections of Southard's brain and those of his parents.[32]Canavan undertook the study to examine hereditary links in brain structure. Southard had a prominentfrontal lobe,which she associated with his planning ability. Canavan noted smallolfactory tracts,and said that Southard had difficulty detecting certain smells. The arteries at the base of his brain were small, but the significance of this finding was unclear. The distinctive features of Southard's brain did not appear in those of his mother or father.[48]

Canavan later wrote that Southard had experienced "singular difficulties producing considerable mental discomfort"[42]during the last year of his life. According to her, he sensed his impending death and felt pressure to complete his unfinished research tasks. Canavan quoted him as saying, "I shall not live long, I must hurry; I must get lots of others busy."[42]

Works

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Notes

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  1. ^abcHilgard, Ernest(1965).Robert Mearns Yerkes, 1876—1956: A Biographical Memoir(PDF).Washington, D.C.:National Academy of Sciences.pp. 385–388.
  2. ^Gay 1938,p. 15.
  3. ^abGay 1938,p. 2-3.
  4. ^Gay 1938,p. 28.
  5. ^Gay 1938,p. 31.
  6. ^Gay 1938,p. 18-21.
  7. ^"Annual Report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1893".Rockwell and Churchill City Printers. 1893.RetrievedNovember 27,2012.
  8. ^Gay 1938,p. 47.
  9. ^Gay 1938,p. 49.
  10. ^Gay 1938,p. 58.
  11. ^ab"The chess contest ended"(PDF).The New York Times.January 1, 1899.RetrievedNovember 25,2012.
  12. ^abc"Series VII. Elmer Ernest Southard papers".Philadelphia Museum of Art.RetrievedMay 19,2015.
  13. ^abcdef"Dr. E. E. Southard, pneumonia victim"(PDF),The New York Times,February 9, 1920,retrievedJune 1,2012
  14. ^"Southard, Elmer Ernest, 1876–1920. E.E. Southard Papers, 1892–1940 (inclusive), 1905–1920 (bulk)".Harvard University.RetrievedAugust 10,2015.
  15. ^"Emma Wilson Davidson Mooers, MD".Harvard University.Archived fromthe originalon March 3, 2018.RetrievedMay 21,2015.
  16. ^Gay 1938,p. 19.
  17. ^Mental Hygiene: Volume IV.New York: National Committee for Mental Hygiene. 1920. p. 680.
  18. ^The American Year Book.New York:D. Appleton & Company.1913. p. 396.
  19. ^"Eugenics Record Office".Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.RetrievedFebruary 10,2013.
  20. ^Painter, Nell Irvin(2011).The History of White People.W. W. Norton & Company.p. 282.ISBN978-0-393-07949-4.RetrievedFebruary 14,2015.
  21. ^Southard, EE (April 1914)."The mind twist and brain spot hypotheses in psychopathology and neuropathology".Psychological Bulletin.11(4): 117–130.doi:10.1037/h0074668.
  22. ^Noll, Richard (2011).American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Dementia Praecox.Cambridge, MA and London:Harvard University Press.
  23. ^Winter, J. M. (2006).Remembering War: The Great War Between Memory and History in the Twentieth Century.Yale University Press.p. 68.ISBN0-300-12752-9.
  24. ^abJones, Edgar; Fear, Nicola; Wessely, Simon (November 1, 2007),"Shell shock and mild traumatic brain injury: A historical review",American Journal of Psychiatry,164(11): 1641–1645,doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07071180,PMID17974926
  25. ^Briggs, Lloyd Vernon (1922).History of the Psychopathic Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.Wright & Potter. p.151.RetrievedFebruary 14,2015.
  26. ^abGay 1938,p. 284.
  27. ^Noll, Richard (October 24, 2011).American Madness.Harvard University Press. p. 254.ISBN978-0-674-06265-8.RetrievedMay 20,2015.
  28. ^abSouthard, E.E.; Noll, R. (2007) [1919],"Classic Text No. 72 – Non-dementia non-praecox: note on the advantages to mental hygiene of extirpating a term (author manuscript)",History of Psychiatry,18(4): 483–502,doi:10.1177/0957154x07082895,PMID18646369,S2CID145522432
  29. ^Heckers, Stephan (1997)."Neuropathology of schizophrenia: Cortex, thalamus, basal ganglia, and neurotransmitter-specific projection systems".Schizophrenia Bulletin.23(3): 406.doi:10.1093/schbul/23.3.403.PMID9327506.
  30. ^Gabriel, JM (Fall 2005), "Mass-producing the individual: Mary C. Jarrett, Elmer E. Southard, and the industrial origins of psychiatric social work",Bulletin of the History of Medicine,79(3): 430–458,doi:10.1353/bhm.2005.0098,PMID16184016,S2CID28477610
  31. ^Southard, E.E. and Mary Jarrett (1922).The Kingdom of Evils: Psychiatric Social Work Presented in One Hundred Case Histories.New York:The Macmillan Company.p. x.
  32. ^ab"The Stethoscope Sorority: Stories from the Archives for Women in Medicine".Center for the History of Medicine.Archived fromthe originalon December 10, 2012.RetrievedNovember 25,2012.
  33. ^"Kansaspedia: Menninger Clinic".Kansas State Historical Society. December 2004.RetrievedNovember 25,2012.
  34. ^Tobach, Ethel, ed. (May 13, 2013).Historical Perspectives and the International Status of Comparative Psychology.Psychology Press.p. 95.ISBN978-1-134-92890-3.RetrievedMay 19,2015.
  35. ^Murchison, Carl, ed. (1930), "Autobiography of Robert Mearns Yerkes",History of Psychology in Autobiography,vol. 2, Worcester, MA:Clark University Press,pp. 381–407
  36. ^abcCassell, Hartwig; Helms, Hermann (1920)."The late Elmer E. Southard".American Chess Bulletin.17:46.RetrievedMay 20,2015.
  37. ^"Personal".Boston Evening Transcript.June 28, 1906.RetrievedNovember 25,2012.
  38. ^Lunbeck, Elizabeth (1995).The Psychiatric Persuasion: Knowledge, Gender, and Power in Modern America.Princeton University Press.pp. 339–340.ISBN0-691-02584-3.RetrievedFebruary 14,2015.
  39. ^ab"Millikin University Haiku Writer Profile: O. Mabson Southard".Archived fromthe originalon March 4, 2016.RetrievedJune 14,2012.
  40. ^Miller, Paul Russell (2012)."Out of the mist: The haiku of O Mabson Southard".Modern Haiku.42(3): 1–5.RetrievedMay 20,2015.
  41. ^Winston, Rick (Winter–Spring 2012).""A sinister poison": The Red Scare comes to Bethel "(PDF).Vermont History.80(1): 74.RetrievedFebruary 26,2013.
  42. ^abcdNoll, Richard (2007)."Classic Text No. 72 – Introduction: Non-Dementia Non-Praecox: Note on the Advantages to Mental Hygiene of Extirpating a Term"(PDF).History of Psychiatry.18(4): 483–92.doi:10.1177/0957154X07082895.PMID18646369.S2CID145522432.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on July 15, 2014.RetrievedFebruary 12,2013.
  43. ^Gay 1938,p. 24-26.
  44. ^Gay 1938,p. 18.
  45. ^abLangfeld, Herbert (1946),"Edwin Bissell Holt 1873 – 1946",Psychological Review,53(5): 251–258,doi:10.1037/h0060596
  46. ^Burke, Carolyn (1996).Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy.Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.p.214.ISBN978-0-374-10964-6.RetrievedMay 20,2015.
  47. ^Dunster, Edward Swift; Hunter, James Bradbridge; Foster, Frank Pierce; Sajous, Charles Euchariste de Medicis; Stragnell, Gregory; Klaunberg, Henry J; Martí-Ibáñez, Félix (1920)."Obituary: Elmer Ernest Southard, M.D. of Boston".International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics.111:295–296.RetrievedMay 19,2015.
  48. ^Gay 1938,p. 26-27.

References

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