Jacob Sergi Kasanin (1897-1946) was a Russian born, American trained

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

who introduced the term ''acute schizoaffective psychoses'' in 1933. He was known as Yasha to those close to him. He was born in

Slavgorod Slavgorod () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Altai Krai, Russia, located between Lake Sekachi, Lakes Sekachi and Bolshoye Yarovoye. The population of the town is It was founded in 1910 and was granted town status in 1914. ...

, on 11 May 1897, and moved 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 1915. He graduated from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in 1919,

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, 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 ph ...

in 1921 and a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

Public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

in 1926. He went on to train is both

Psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

and

Neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

Boston State Hospital Boston State Hospital is a historic mental hospital located in Mattapan and Dorchester, Massachusetts. The court case '' Rogers v. Okin'', which increases patient consent rights, was filed by a class action lawsuit against the hospital. The hospital ...

Boston Psychopathic Hospital The Boston Psychopathic Hospital, established at 74 Fenwood Road in 1912, was one of the first mental health hospitals in Massachusetts, United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The name was c ...

and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. From 1928 to 1932 he was a Senior Research associate at

studying social causes of

Mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

. When Director of the Department of Mental Hygiene of the Federated Jewish Charities in Boston his research interest was blood sugar curves in Epidemic encephalitis. Whilst in Russia in 1930 he became acquainted with

Lev Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (, ; ; – June 11, 1934) was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory. After his ear ...

and his work. He translated his work Thought In Schizophrenia into English. In 1933 in

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 ...

he published a paper entitled '"The Acute Schizoaffective Psychoses" which he had presented at the 88th Annual Meeting of the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

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in May or June 1932. In his article Kasanin described 9 cases studies who had both schizophrenic or

Psychotic 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 incoher ...

symptoms and

Affective Affect, in psychology, is the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood. It encompasses a wide range of emotional states and can be positive (e.g., happiness, joy, excitement) or negative (e.g., sadness, anger, fear, dis ...

symptoms. Whilst at the

Michael Reese Hospital Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1881, Michael Reese Hospital was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest ...

he conducted research with

Eugenia Hanfmann Eugenia Hanfmann (March 3, 1905 - September 14, 1983) was an American psychologist and educator who was born in Russia. Early in her career, Hanfmann was associated with Kurt Koffka and the Gestalt movement of psychology. Later she conducted resear ...

on Schizophrenic thinking this was following on from Vygotsky's work and was funded by the Masonic Foundation. Together they wrote ''Conceptual Thinking in Schizophrenia'', from this a test was developed called the Hanfmann-Kasanin Test. From 1939 he was Chief of Psychiatry at Mount Zion Hospital in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and Assistant Clinical Professor at

UCSF School of Medicine The UCSF School of Medicine is a multisite medical school of the University of California, San Francisco, with a historical campus located at the base of Mount Sutro on the Parnassus Heights campus in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1864 b ...

. He also engaged in Private Practice. He was president of the Association of American Orthopsychiatrists from 1941 to 1942. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served as a psychiatrist to the 9th service command of the army. He died suddenly on the 4 May 1946.

Publications

* Kasanin, Jacob. "THE BLOOD SUGAR CURVE IN MENTAL DISEASE: II. THE SCHIZOPHRENIC (DEMENTIA PRAECOX) GROUPS." ''Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry (Chicago)''16.4 (1926): 414-19 * Kasanin J., Knapp E. ''External factors causing variable results in the Kottmann reaction'', 1926 * Kasanin J., Petersen J.N. ''Psychosis as an early sign of epidemic encephalitis'', 1926 * ''The Acute Schizoaffective Psychoses''. American Journal of Psychiatry 90, 1933 * ''Pavlov's Theory of Schizophrenia'', 1932 * Bowman K.M., Kasanin J. ''Constitutional Schizophrenia'', 1933 * Kasanin J., Hanfmann E. ''An experimental study of concept formation in schizophrenia. Quantitative analysis of the results''. American Journal of Psychiatry 95, ss. 35–48, 1938 * Hanfmann E., Kasanin J. ''Conceptual thinking in schizophrenia''. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Monographs, 1942 * ''Language and Thought in Schizophrenia'', 1944 * ''Criteria of Therapy of War Neuroses'' American Journal of Psychiatry 104, 1947 * Kasanin J.S. (ed.), ''Language and Thought in Schizophrenia. Collected papers''. With a Preface by Nolan D.C. Lewis, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1951

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasanin, Jacob 1897 births 1946 deaths History of psychiatry American psychiatrists University of Michigan Medical School alumni People from Slavgorod University of Michigan School of Public Health alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States 20th-century American physicians