Dr. Southard was an American neuropsychiatrist, neuropathologist, professor, and author. He is recognized as one of the most significant thinkers in psychiatry and practitioners of his time.
During the WWI era, he conducted studies of shell shock and believed that shell shock resulted from the mind's inability to align the sensory experiences of war with other life events. Dr. Southard said this process, which could also have physical causes, resulted in disorientation and transformed the events of war into a mental condition.
Dr. Southard was president of the APA from 1918–19 and was a prolific writer, publishing nearly 200 papers as well as collaborating on five books, including Shell shock and other neuropsychiatric problems presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914–1918.
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| Gallery | Military Psychiatry and Veterans Mental Health | |