Amariah Brigham
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and one the founding members in 1844 of the The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane
Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane
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...
, which eventually became The American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
. While serving as the first director of the Utica Psychiatric Center
Utica Psychiatric Center
The Utica Psychiatric Center, also known as Utica State Hospital, which opened in Utica in 1843, was New York's first state-run facility designed to care for the mentally ill and was one of the first such institutions in the United States, predating and perhaps influencing the Kirkbride Plan which...
, Dr. Brigham launched and became the first editor of its official journal, The American Journal of Insanity (now called The American Journal of Psychiatry
American Journal of Psychiatry
The American Journal of Psychiatry is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry and the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was known as the American Journal of Insanity...
).
Selected Works
- Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health (2d ed., Boston, 1833), bound with Observations on the Influence of Religion upon the Health and Physical Welfare of Mankind. Facsimile ed., 1973, 2 vols. in 1, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ISBN 978-0-8201-1125-4.
- A treatise on epidemic cholera : including an historical account of its origin and progress, to the present period (1832)
- An inquiry into diseases and functions of the brain, spinal cord and nerves (1840)