William A. White, M.D.

Dr. White was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York,attended Cornell University on scholarship from 1885–1889, and his interest in psychiatry began there.  He received his M.D. in 1891 from the Long Island Hospital Medical School, where he also interned.

In 1903, he was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to be Superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. (now St. Elizabeths Hospital), a position he held until his death. Dr. White transformed the hospital into a leading center for psychiatric treatment, training, and research and advocated analytic methods of treatment. He was a great clinician, and the Army, Navy, and Public Health Service medical corps began sending officiers to him for training.

Dr. White was President of the American Psychiatric Association from 1924–25. He is credited with forging the elements of a distinctive American psychiatry and shaping its relations with medicine, social science, law, and American culture.

• Read Psych News: William A. White, M.D.: A Distinguished Achiever
• Adopt-a-Book: Thoughts of a psychiatrist on the war and after,by William A. White, 1919