Background

Samuel Herbert Barondes was born on December 21, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, a son of Solomon and Yetta (Kaplow) Barondes.

Education

Samuel Barondes graduated from Columbia University and received his Bachelor of Arts in 1954 and Doctor of Medicine in 1958.

Career

Samuel was an intern, later assistant resident in medicine in Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston. Later, he worked at National Institutes of Health as a senior assistant surgeon. From 1963 he worked at McLean Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, both Boston. As an assistant professor, then an associate professor of psychiatry and molecular biology he worked at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. From 1969 till 1986 he worked as professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Diego. He was also an associate editor in the Journal of Neurobiology. Samuel was professor and chair, department of psychiatry of the University of California, director of the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, director of the Center of Neurobiology and Psychiatry.

In Molecules and Mental Illness (1992), Barondes offers readers a brief but broad look at biological psychiatry. He describes the reemergence of the discipline during the later part of the twentieth century - with the introduction of new psychotherapeutic drugs - and explains how these medications, brain chemicals, and genetics affect mental illnesses. Reviewing Molecules and Mental Illness in Choice, S. Shapiro observed that it offers ''clear and simple explanations of the basic biology of brain function.'' In a Nature review, Solomon H. Snyder called the book ''an exquisitely elegant volume” with “rigorous yet highly readable explanations of the biological underpinnings of mental illness,'' and deemed it ''an important contribution that will interest all thoughtful readers, whether scientists or educated laypeople.''

Barondes' book Mood Genes: Hunting for Origins of Mania and Depression (1998) focuses on the genetic component of mental illnesses. Another multifaceted work, Mood Genes includes historical information, a technical explanation of how Barondes and other scientists have tried to identify genes that predispose individuals to mental illness, and personal stories about mentally ill patients and their families.

Achievements

• Samuel Herbert Barondes is an educator and researcher, an authority on the genetic factors of mental illness. A professor of psychiatry and other subjects at various schools, he has directed research institutions and has worked with a number of organizations devoted to the study of mental illness. His books Molecules and Mental Illness and Mood Genes: Hunting for Origins of Mania and Depression, were highly praised by critics. In his work Mood Genes, the great importance is his research, conducted in order to identify the specific genes that cause severe mental illnesses.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Molecules and Mental Illness
  • Mood Genes: Hunting for Origins of Mania and Depression
  • Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality

Views

Barondes thinks that for years, biological psychiatry had taken a back seat to the Freudian, psychoanalytical treatment of mental illness. The popularity of Freudian theory during the early twentieth century was furthered by the fact that the Nazis appropriated the work of German researchers to validate the sterilization of hundreds of thousands of people, thus tainting the study of biological psychiatry.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Fink admitted that ''Barondes lucidly encompasses the development of modem psychiatry and genetics, and shows how the two are coupled in the quest for the genetic basis of mood disorders.''
  
  New York Times Book Review contributor Derek Bickerton: ''Barondes unfolds his complex material with such consummate skill - moving simply and logically from one step to the next - that these hurdles can be taken in stride.''

Connections

Samuel married Ellen Slater on September 1, 1963. She died, November 22, 1971. They had two children.

Father:

Solomon Barondes

Mother:

Yetta (Kaplow) Barondes

late spouse:

Ellen Slater

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 181