Marcia Goin, M.D., Former APA President, Dies

Marcia Kraft Goin, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., who was the 130th president of APA for the 2003-2004 term, died last month.

David Hathcox

Goin had long been involved with APA before being elected to its top leadership position. She had served as vice president (2000-2001), trustee at large (1997-2000), and a member of the APA Committee on the Practice of Psychotherapy and the APA Commission on Public Policy, Litigation, and Advocacy. In addition to her private practice of psychiatry, Goin had been director of psychiatry residency training at the adult psychiatric outpatient department of the Los Angeles County General Hospital/University of Southern California School of Medicine.

Goin was a prolific author of papers and book chapters on a wide range of topics—psychotherapy of personality disorders, suicide and no-suicide contracts, medication compliance, body dysmorphic disorder, and psychotherapy in the public sector, among others. She also published a series of seminal papers with her husband, John, a plastic surgeon, and a book on the psychological effects of plastic surgery.

Combining her background in residency training and psychotherapy, Goin became a national leader in research on how to teach psychotherapy to residents, including pioneering the use of videotape to teach psychotherapy techniques and on how to teach supervisors how to supervise.

Goin was elected president-elect of APA in early 2002, when the country was still reeling from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. During her presidential address at APA’s Annual Meeting in New York in 2004, Goin recalled the days and weeks immediately following the attacks.

“There were not many wounded, only many dead—but those enduring psychic trauma were countless,” Goin said. “Our initial attention was naturally directed to the psychic trauma of those who had lost loved ones, associates, and friends and to those who had witnessed the events and survived the catastrophe. Many people with limited awareness of the emotional effects of trauma began to live with it on a daily basis. They learned that being brave, strong, and determined does not necessarily eliminate psychological vulnerability. Depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress syndrome took on a new reality.”

Her presidential year coincided with the invasion of Iraq. In the same presidential address in 2004, Goin noted that that summer she had attended a conference in Cairo convened by the Mediterranean division of the World Health Organization and the World Psychiatric Association to discuss mental health and rehabilitation of the people in Iraq. War was not a new topic for her; she and her husband had been volunteers in Vietnam in 1964, providing humanitarian relief.

A special concern of Goin’s was the criminalization of people with mental illness, which became a defining priority during her presidential year. “The Los Angeles County jail is now considered to be the largest psychiatric hospital in the country,” Goin said in her 2004 address. “Approximately 2,500 of its inmates are being treated for mental disorders at any one time. Fortunately, in the late 1990s a grand jury investigation resulted in the upgrading of psychiatric care in the county jail, and it is now considered one of the best psychiatric hospitals in the country. Following my visits to the jail, I remain haunted by memories of the mentally ill inmates in the holding area: a young woman screaming at unseen visions, a middle-aged man cringing in terror from paranoid delusions, young and old, male and female visibly suffering in their mental distress. Is jail really our nation’s preferred institutional treatment of choice?”

Among the many awards she received were a Certificate of Merit from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (1985), a Distinguished Service Award from the Southern California Psychiatric Society (1991), an Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (2005), and an Exceptional Mentoring Award from the University of Southern California (2005).

Marcia Goin is survived by her daughters Jessica and Suzanne.

APA leaders expressed condolences to Goin’s family and said her contributions to APA were profound and enduring. “Marcia’s leadership is a model not only for me personally but for all us,” said APA President Anita Everett, M.D. “Her focus on the criminalization of people with mental illness put a spotlight on an issue that continues to be an APA priority.”

APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., added, “We will miss Marcia dearly, for she was thoughtful, calming, and a gracious leader who achieved her initiatives when she was APA President and contributed so much in the psychiatric field.” ■