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Dr. Abraham L. Halpern (February 2, 1925 - April 20, 2013) was a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and former president of The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. [1]
In a wide-ranging career, Dr. Halpern was a champion of human rights especially in matters of law and mental health and was one of the founding leaders of the psychiatric sub-specialty of forensic psychiatry.
In 1965, Dr. Halpern participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches with Martin Luther King Jr., manning one of the ambulances in support of protestors. [2]
Dr. Halpern had been a long-standing member of the UN Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, representing both the International Council of Prison Medical Services and the World Psychiatric Association.
Halpern was a board member of Friends of Falun Gong, USA. [3] Halpern is also a very strong opponent of the death penalty; he has written extensively on the subject of physician participation in executions. [4] Halpern has also spoke out in defense of the curative benefits of psychoanalysis. [5] Halpern has advocated for the abolition of the insanity defense [6]
Served on active duty in Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve from Sep. 24, 1942 to Nov. 30, 1945 in European, North Atlantic, and Pacific theatres.
Rank on discharge: Petty Officer.
Served in Royal Canadian Navy, 1953-1957, as follows:
Medical Officer, R.C.N. Hospital, Esquimalt, BC, July to Nov., 1953.
Medical Officer, H.M.C.S. "Cayuga", Nov., 1953 to Feb., 1955 - Far East (Korea).
Medical Officer, R.C.N. Hospital, Cornwallis, NS, Apr., 1955 to Sep., 1956.
Medical Officer, R.C.N. Hospital, Halifax, NS, Sep., 1956 to June, 1957.
Rank on discharge: Surgeon Lieutenant Commander.
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals or behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative identity disorder, major depressive disorder and many others. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialize only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients. Others may specialize in the temporary or permanent containment of patients who need routine assistance, treatment, or a specialized and controlled environment due to a psychiatric disorder. Patients often choose voluntary commitment, but those whom psychiatrists believe to pose significant danger to themselves or others may be subject to involuntary commitment and involuntary treatment. Psychiatric hospitals may also be called psychiatric wards/units when they are a subunit of a regular hospital.
John Conolly was an English psychiatrist. He published the volume Indications of Insanity in 1830. In 1839, he was appointed resident physician to the Middlesex County Asylum where he introduced the principle of non-restraint into the treatment of the insane, which led to non-restraint became accepted practice throughout England. With colleagues he founded the 'Provincial Medical and Surgical Association', and founded the 'British and Foreign Medical Review, or, A Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine'.
Herbert Pardes is an American physician, psychiatrist, and the executive vice-chairman of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital.
Liaison psychiatry, also known as consultative psychiatry or consultation-liaison psychiatry, is the branch of psychiatry that specialises in the interface between general medicine/pediatrics and psychiatry, usually taking place in a hospital or medical setting. The role of the consultation-liaison psychiatrist is to see patients with comorbid medical conditions at the request of the treating medical or surgical consultant or team. Consultation-liaison psychiatry has areas of overlap with other disciplines including psychosomatic medicine, health psychology and neuropsychiatry.
The Chinese Society of Psychiatry is the largest organization for psychiatrists in China. It publishes the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders ("CCMD"), first published in 1985. The CSP also publishes clinical practice guidelines; promotes psychiatric practice, research and communication; trains new professionals; and holds academic conferences.
The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, also known as The Superintendents' Association, was organized in Philadelphia in October, 1844 at a meeting of 13 superintendents, making it the first professional medical specialty organization in the U.S.
Solomon Carter Fuller was a pioneering Liberian neurologist, psychiatrist, pathologist, and professor. Born in Monrovia, Liberia, he completed his college education and medical degree (MD) in the United States. He studied psychiatry in Munich, Germany, then returned to the United States, where he worked for much of his career at Westborough State Hospital in Westborough, Massachusetts.
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of deleterious mental conditions. These include various matters related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions.
Edward Charles Spitzka was an eminent late-19th century alienist, neurologist, and anatomist. Dr. Spitzka was the author of the landmark psychiatric manual "Treatise on Insanity, Its Classification, Diagnosis and Treatment" published in 1883. He pioneered studies of the anatomy of the human nervous system.
Ronald O. Rieder is an American psychiatrist who served as Vice Chair for Education and Director of the Residency Training Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. His interests have been in the areas of schizophrenia, genetics and psychiatric education. Prior to joining Mount Sinai's faculty as a tenured professor in 2007, he served for several decades as the residency training director at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons. He was President of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training in 1992-1993 and in 2007 received the Vestermark Award from the American Psychiatric Association, that organization's highest award for psychiatric education. He is also the author of approximately sixty original papers in the fields of psychiatry and psychiatric education.
John B. Chapin M.D. (1829-1918) was an American physician and mental hospital administrator. He was an advocate for the removal of mentally ill patients from the almshouses in New York State to a hospital setting and helped to pass a state law that provided hospital care for the patients.
Edward Nathaniel Brush was an American physician, a mental hospital administrator, and an editor of psychiatric journals.
Jesse Montgomery Mosher, M.D. (1864-1922), an American physician, practiced psychiatry in Albany, New York and served as editor to medical journals. He was credited with establishing the first psychiatric ward within the organization of a general hospital.
Abraham Myerson (1881–1948) was a Lithuanian neurologist, psychiatrist, clinician, pathologist, and researcher. He had a special interest in the heredity of psychiatric and neurologic disease.
Owen Copp, M.D. (1858–1933) was an American physician and a psychiatric administrator. He was president of the American Psychiatric Association from 1921 to 1922, and proposed a progressive program in mental health in the United States.
George Alder Blumer, M.D. (1857-1940) was a physician, a mental hospital administrator, and a journal editor. He was a leader in the provision of humanitarian care for mental hospital patients.
Thomas William Salmon, M.D. (1876-1927) was a leader of the mental hygiene movement in the United States in early twentieth century.
George Hughes Kirby (1875–1935) was an American physician and psychiatrist, administrator, and educator, who contributed to the advancement of psychiatry in the United States.

Lucy Dorothy Ozarin was a psychiatrist who served in the United States Navy. She was one of the first women psychiatrists commissioned in the Navy, and she was one of seven female Navy psychiatrists who served during World War II.

Kenneth Z. Altshuler was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He was a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.