Isaac Ray and Mental Hygiene in America

Abstract

Isaac Ray was one of the "original thirteen" founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), now the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Besides founding this oldest of the American medical specialty organizations, Ray was, effectively, the founder of legal psychiatry as an area of special study. In 1952 the American Psychiatric Association established the Isaac Ray Award, t o be given annually to the person deemed "most worthy by reason of his contribution t o the improvement of the relations of law and psychiatry." A friend and supporter of Dorothea L. Dix, Ray was, himself, a social reformer.Born in Beverly, Mass., in 1807, Isaac Ray was the first child of a widower Yankee sea-captain and his second wife. Isaac was followed by Lydia, Mary Ann, and Albert, in that order. The eight-week-old infant, Albert, died when Isaac was almost seven years old. Eight months later, Isaac Ray had a second tragedy t o cope with, the death of his father. We know little else of his early years other than that he attended Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., where he roomed with Robert Rantoul, Jr., who later became a notable social reformer and the successor t o Daniel

Mind the gap: MIND, the mental hygiene movement and the trapdoor in measurements of intellect

“…Although the term ‘mental hygiene’ had been in use in the nineteenth century, its use to represent a movement and associated practice began in the United States in the first decade of the twentieth century (Quen 1977) At first its aim was to improve the care and treatment of people in mental asylums. But the movement’s instigator, and one time mental patient, Clifford Beers was soon persuaded by influential allies in medicine and psychology that the movement should focus on the prevention and early treatment of mental problems (Porter, 1986, p.194-5).…”

Isaac Ray's Affair with Phrenology

“…By then, his formulations of medical jurisprudence were gaining momentum. During M'Naghten's murder trial and acquittal in England in 1843, Ray's Treatise was used by defense counsel to great effect (Diamond, 1956;Quen, 1977). While in Augusta, Ray was appointed as Superintendent of the planned Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.…”

“…Moreover, the relative strength of mental faculties could be improved by education and concern for one's bodily health-core concepts in the mental-hygiene movement of which he wrote at length (Ray 1863). Quen (1977), discussing Ray's thoughts on mental hygiene, noted Ray's belief that a healthy mind is the result of a healthy brain. He then cited basic science work on learning and anatomy from the 1970s, to the effect that rats with an enriched environment developed heavier cerebral cortices.…”

“…Two years after Quen's (1977) paper, Kandel (1979) elegantly described the measurable link between learning and physical change in neurons in the marine snail Aplysia califarnica. Here was his take on how far neuroscience had come in approaching the mind: "The relevant branches of biology-ethology and neurobiology -were, until recently, simply not mature enough, either technically or philosophically, to address higher-order problems related to mental processes.…”