George Hughes Kirby

Background

George Hughes Kirby was born on February 09, 1875 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States, the only son of George Leonidas and Mary C. (Green) Kirby.

Education

George received his elementary education in his native city and later in Raleigh, North Carolina, where his father, a well-known psychiatrist, was the superintendent of the North Carolina State Hospital. He obtained the degree of B. S. in 1896 from the University of North Carolina, and that of Doctor of Medicine from the Long Island Medical College in 1899.

Career

Having decided to become a psychiatrist like his father, Kirby entered the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts in 1899 as an assistant to Dr. Adolf Meyer. In 1902 when Meyer accepted the directorship of the New York Pathological (later Psychiatric) Institute, Kirby accompanied him to Ward's Island, New York. In 1908 he was appointed director of clinical psychiatry in Manhattan State Hospital, in 1917 he was made medical inspector of the New York State Hospital Commission, and a few months later he was advanced to the directorship of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. This office he held until 1931, when he resigned on account of illness.

Psychiatry experienced the greatest advance in its history during Kirby's state hospital service and he played a leading part in it. He actively collaborated with Adolf Meyer in revolutionizing the scientific approaches to the study and treatment of mental diseases, and later, when he became the director of the Institute, he followed the same progressive paths in the instruction of the state hospital physicians and in methods of therapy. He was not an enthusiast, but he was quick to perceive the importance of new discoveries. The most significant discoveries in psychiatry during his time were Wagner-Jauregg's malarial therapy in general paresis and Freud's psychoanalysis in the field of functional psychiatry. Kirby realized the value of Freud's concepts for psychiatry, and very soon after he became director, he introduced psychoanalysis into the courses of instruction in the Psychiatric Institute.

Kirby devoted most of his time to academic work; he was instructor in psychopathology at Cornell University Medical College, 1906-1912, and professor of psychiatry, 1917-1927, and 1933-1935. From 1927 to 1933 he was professor of psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He was an alert clinician, a sympathetic teacher, and a fluent and interesting lecturer.

He also published numerous writings in his field. One of his works, Guides for History Taking and Clinical Examination of Psychiatric Cases (1921), became a classic and was widely adopted for use by state hospital physicians. Of his many professional connections the following were the most important: he was chief consulting psychiatrist to the New York City Department of Correction; member of the medical board of the New York Neurological Institute, consulting physician to the New York City Children's Hospital, the United States Veterans' Hospital, No. 81, and St. Vincent's Retreat. During the World War he was commissioned major in the Medical Corps of the army and was attached to the Port of New York and United States Army Hospital No. I. Following the war he was consultant in neuropsychiatry in the United States Public Health Service, 1919-1935.

Achievements

• Kirby became one of the outstanding psychiatrists of his time. He was noted for bringing psychoanalysis courses to the State Psychiatric Institute. He was also the first to introduce and develop heat therapy in the treatment of paresis. It was also under his management that the old and dilapidated buildings on Ward's Island became transformed in 1929 into the twenty-story psychiatric institute facing the Hudson River on Washington Heights in New York City, and it was largely through his efforts that this change made the State Psychiatric Institute a part of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Centre.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Guides for History Taking and Clinical Examination of Psychiatric Cases

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Health Bulletin, Vol. 51: January, 1936 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Health Bulletin, Vol. 51: January, 1936 ...)

Membership

Kirby was a member of the leading neuropsychiatric organizations of the United States and a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine of England. He was president of the American Psychiatric Association, 1933-1934, the New York Neurological Society, 1927-1929, the New York Psychiatric Society, 1912-1913, and the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry, 1922-1925.

Connections

On April 29, 1912, Kirby was married to Jeanette Kruszewska, and they had one child, Jeanette Vincenta.

Father:

George Leonidas Kirby

Mother:

Mary C. (Green) Kirby

Spouse:

Jeanette Kruszewska

Daughter:

Jeanette Vincenta