The Philadelphia Psychiatric Society (PPS) is wrapping up a year's worth of
events to mark its birth in Philadelphia 100 years ago. A PPS history
committee was formed to preserve and learn more about the organization's
earliest history. Now members are looking forward—to next month's
year-ending celebration.
"To do justice to this milestone, we have arranged for a very special
evening to take place in the context of our annual event—the Benjamin
Rush Awards Night, on November 14," PPS President Hope Selarnick, M.D.,
told Psychiatric News. "Local psychiatrists who are the rich
fabric, tradition, and history of our society will be featured, and a
proclamation from our governor [Edward Rendell] will be presented."
PPS operated as an autonomous body for years following its founding on
January 11, 1909. Now, as a chapter of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric
Society—a district branch of APA—it also draws members from the
Philadelphia suburbs in nearby Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks
counties. The state society has more than 1,700 members, PPS immediate past
President Jeffrey Naser, M.D., told Psychiatric News. "As a
chapter, [PPS] represents almost 1,000 members."
Beyond venerable age, PPS has location, location, location.
Philadelphia, America's cradle of liberty, is where some of the earliest seeds
of organized psychiatry—indeed the pursuit of medicine—were sown
in this country.
FIG1
"Our history," said Naser, "is intertwined with such
organizations as the College of Physicians of Philadelphia [the oldest
professional medical organization in the United States] and the Institute of
Pennsylvania
Hospital."
Pennsylvania Hospital, considered the oldest in the country, was cofounded
in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Rush, M.D., considered the father of
American psychiatry, was a Pennsylvanian and also a signer of the Declaration
of Independence. Rush "walked the halls of Pennsylvania Hospital from
1783 to 1813," according to historic accounts, as well as those at the
College of Philadelphia, the precursor of the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine, founded in 1765.
Meanwhile, in 1841 Pennsylvania Hospital—which had been caring for
mentally ill individuals since 1752—"opened a mental hospital
division on a farm a few miles away," explained Edward Leonard Jr.,
M.D., a former president of PPS. The facility was named the Pennsylvania
Hospital for the Insane. "Its first superintendent was Thomas Kirkbride,
M.D.," recounted Leonard. "Three years later in Philadelphia, he
was one of the 13 founders of the forerunner of APA, the Association of
Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane. His facility
became known as the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1959."
FIG2
"That the chapter has been around for over 100 years and is in the
birthplace of organized psychiatry is quite ... special," Deborah
Shoemaker, the executive director of PPS, told Psychiatric News.
Today, she added, "five residency programs are housed within the city
[at Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, University of
Pennsylvania, Albert Einstein Medical Center, and Drexel University], which
allows for the cultivation of future
leaders."
Women were among PPS's founding members. In terms of leadership, the first
woman president of PPS, Margaret DeRonde, M.D., became so in 1954. Since then,
seven women have served as PPS president.
PPS members, past and present, "have consisted of notable pioneers in
psychiatry," observed Paul Jay Fink, M.D., a former president of PPS,
APA, and the American College of Psychiatrists. Psychiatric study and care
have flourished, he said, "because of the number of medical schools, the
number of people who were chairing departments and who were good researchers,
and a significant number of outstanding practicing psychiatrists."
Among PPS's groundbreakers were Kenneth Appel, M.D., and Edward Strecker,
M.D., of the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital and O. Spurgeon English,
M.D., and Edward Weiss, M.D., of Temple University. Modern-day notables
include Albert Stunkard, M.D., emeritus director and founder of the Weight and
Eating Disorders Program that carries his name at the University of
Pennsylvania; and Aaron Beck, M.D., emeritus professor in the Department of
Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Bala Cynwyd,
Pa., institute that carries his name.
The Benjamin Rush Awards Reception and Benefit will be held November
14 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19
South 22nd Street, Philadelphia. The cost is $100 per person and $50 for
psychiatry residents. Ticket and registration information is posted at<www.philadelphiapsychiatricsociety.org>.
Nonmembers of PPS should click on the "nonmembers" link,"
coming events," and then the registration link for the dinner; or
call (800) 422-2900. ▪