Aaron Joshua Rosanoff (26 June 1878 – 7 January 1943) was an American psychiatrist who studied

psychosis In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...

and was closely associated with

Eugenics Record Office The Eugenics Record Office (ERO), located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States, was a research institute that gathered biological and social information about the American population, serving as a center for eugenics and human heredity ...

and a member of the Eugenics Research Association.

Life and career

Born in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, Rosanoff emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1891 and received an

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

from

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

in 1900. He worked as a physician at Kings Park Hospital from 1901 to 1922, and as a psychiatrist for the L.A. Diagnostic Clinic from 1922 until his death. He was also California's State Director of Institutions and State Commissioner of Lunacy from 1939 until his resignation in 1942. Closely associated with Eugenics Record Office and a member of the Eugenics Research Association, Rosanoff was a member of the

American Eugenics Society The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a pro-eugenics organization dedicated to "furthering the discussion, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge about biological and sociocultural forces which affect the structure and composition of huma ...

Advisory council from 1923 to 1935. He was also a member of the editorial Board of the

American Journal of Psychiatry ''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...

. In 1905 he translated ''Manual of Psychiatry'' by Joseph Rogues de Fursac, a medical school textbook which went through several editions and from 1927 appeared only under Rosanoff's name.

Work

Rosanoff studied both the physiological and genetic factors that lead to various psychosis, and is best known for his Theory of Personality, which broke down the human personality into seven scales: Normal, Hysteroid, Manic, Depressive,

Autistic Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing di ...

Paranoid Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety, suspicion, or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of con ...

, and Epileptoid. These scales first modelled in the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale personality test in 1935. These scales were used into the 1970s, notably by Chandler McLeod, who use a modified Humm system.

References

Sources

* Barry Mehler, ''A History of the American Eugenics Society'', Ph.D. dissertation, 1988, University of Illinois.

External links

*
Works by Aaron Rosanoff
at the

Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...

1878 births 1943 deaths American Eugenics Society members American psychiatrists Cornell University alumni People from Pinsk People from Pinsky Uyezd Jewish eugenicists Jews from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Culbert Olson administration personnel Culbert Olson political appointees {{psychiatrist-stub