John P. Gray (psychiatrist)

For other people named John Gray, see John Gray (disambiguation).
John P. Gray
John P. Gray circa 1880
John P. Gray circa 1880
Born(1825-08-06)August 6, 1825
Halfmoon Township (Pennsylvania)
DiedNovember 29, 1886(1886-11-29) (aged 61)
Utica, New York
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materDickinson College
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

John Perdue Gray (August 6, 1825, Halfmoon Township (Pennsylvania) - November 29, 1886, Utica, New York) was an American psychiatrist at the forefront of biological psychiatric theory during the 19th century.[1]

He attended Dickinson College, then the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he received his medical diploma in 1848.,[2] 19th-Century Psychiatrists of Note, www.nlm.nih.gov</ref> He spent on year of further studies in Europe, then is a resident at Blockley Asylum in Philadelphia.[2] In 1850, Gray works in Utica Psychiatric Center in New York and superintendent in 1854, until his death in 1886.[2] He was also the editor of the American Journal of Insanity, the precursor to the American Journal of Psychiatry.

He was an psychiatric expert in the trial for the assassination of president James A. Garfield[2]

Gray believed that insanity was always due to physical causes and that the mentally ill should be treated as physically ill. He explained that mental illness can be affected by physical factors relating to an individual. He studied three such factors, namely: diet, temperature and ventilation.[3]

  1. ^ Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L. (eds.). "Gray, John Perdue" . American Medical Biographies . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.
  2. ^ a b c d "Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry through 1900". United States National Library of Medicine. 2015-03-24. Archived from the original on 2023-03-22. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  3. ^ Howard Atwood Kelly; Walter Lincoln Burrage (1920). American Medical Biographies. Norman, Remington Company. pp. 456–.