Dr Melvin Sabshin

Robert Van Voren

doi:10.1192/pb.bp.111.036012

Abstract

Highlights

To capture Melvin Sabshin in a short obituary is almost a contradictio in terminis. Those who knew Melvin Sabshin invariably remember his imposing stature, his supreme intellect and his analytic and ever questioning mind, as well as the typical broad smile on his face and the big cigar stuck in the corner of his mouth
Melvin Sabshin, former Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and, among many honors, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, died on 5 June 2011. He had his roots in Russia, which may explain his keen interest in the issue of Soviet political abuse of psychiatry in the 1970s and 1980s
In 1944, Melvin Sabshin entered Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, after having spent 1 year in the US Army as a volunteer. He became politically active in the civil rights movement, defending equal rights for Black people and eventually even joining the American Communist Party, a fact he kept concealed until I interviewed him for the first time in February 2009

Summary

Introduction

To capture Melvin Sabshin in a short obituary is almost a contradictio in terminis. Those who knew Melvin Sabshin invariably remember his imposing stature, his supreme intellect and his analytic and ever questioning mind, as well as the typical broad smile on his face and the big cigar stuck in the corner of his mouth. Melvin Sabshin, former Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and, among many honors, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, died on 5 June 2011.

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Conclusion