Larry Joseph Siever was an American

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 was a leading figure in the study of

personality disorder Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. ...

Early life

Larry Siever was born in 1947 in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents i ...

. His father, Raymond Siever was a geologist, and his mother Doris Fisher was a schoolteacher. As a child he moved to

Belmont, Massachusetts Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a western suburb of Boston and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 27,295, an increase of 10.4% from 2010. H ...

. In 1965 he was named a Presidential Scholar by the Department of Education for his academic success at Belmont High School.

Career

Siever worked at the Mount Sinai Hospital and

James J. Peters VA Medical Center The James J. Peters VA Medical Center (also known as the Bronx Veterans Hospital) is a US Department of Veterans Affairs hospital complex located at 130 West Kingsbridge Road in West Fordham, Bronx, Fordham, The Bronx, Bronx, New York City. The ...

. Prior to Mount Sinai and the VA, Siever worked for the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

and for

McLean Hospital McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It i ...

. Siever was the director Mood and Personality Disorders Program at Mount Sinai and the director of the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers at the James J Peters VA Medical Center. He was president of the Society of

Biological Psychiatry Biological psychiatry or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biology, biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as ...

and a fellow of the

American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Founded in 1961, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) is a professional organization of leading brain and behavior scientists. The principal functions of the College are research and education. Their goals in research are to offer ...

. Siever also founded the Veterans Integrated Service Networks. He died in 2021 due to

illness A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function (biology), function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical condi ...

. He graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

and

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

Research

Siever's research led to the removal of the distinction between Axis I and Axis II personality disorders. Siever primarily studied the

neuroscientific Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

causes of

Schizotypal Schizotypal personality disorder (StPD or SPD), also known as schizotypal disorder, is a cluster A personality disorder characterized by thought disorder, paranoia, a characteristic form of social anxiety, derealization, transient psychosis, an ...

(StPD) and

Borderline personality disorder Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive, long-term pattern of significant interpersonal relationship instability, an acute fear of Abandonment (emotional), abandonment, and intense emotiona ...

(BPD). To do this, he researched dopamine's relationship with StPD and used

Positron Emission Tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, r ...

to understand the chemical causes of BPD. Alongside personality disorders, he was also knowledgeable in the fields of

personality Personality is any person's collection of interrelated behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life. These interrelated patterns are relatively stable, but can change over long time per ...

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

, mood,

impulse-control disorder Impulse-control disorder (ICD) is a class of psychiatric disorders characterized by impulsivity – failure to resist a temptation, an urge, or an impulse; or having the inability to not speak on a thought. The fifth edition of the American Ps ...

s. Siever published more than 400

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

ed papers on personality disorders.

Honors

Because of his efforts, in 2011 he was awarded the Senior Career Award in recognition of his "distinguished and pioneering contributions to the study of personality disorders” by the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders. Siever's research also lead to 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 ...

awarding him the

Judd Marmor Judd Marmor (May 2, 1910 – December 16, 2003) was an American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist known for his role in removing homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders''. ...

award in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siever, Larry J. 1947 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American physicians American psychiatrists Harvard College alumni Stanford University School of Medicine alumni