August Hoch

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August Hoch

August Hoch (20 April 1868 – 23 September 1919) was a Swiss–American psychiatrist who was the third director of the

psychiatric
developments during the early 20th century in the United States.

Biography

He was born Charles August Hoch (and would sign legal documents with his full name) in

University of Maryland
. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Maryland in 1890. He remained an assistant to Osler in the clinic.

In October 1893, Hoch assumed a position at the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts, near

University of Heidelberg
. He would return to European laboratories and Kraepelin's clinic in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1897.

In July 1894 he married Emmy Muench (22 January 1862 – 27 August 1941) of Basel, Switzerland, during his European trip. Hoch returned to America with his new bride on the "Veendam" passenger ship, arriving in New York City on 12 November 1894. In May 1895, while working at the newly named McLean Hospital, now on a new campus in Waverly (Belmont), Massachusetts, the Hoch's only child Susan (Susie) Hoch (21 May 1895 – 8 March 1980) was born. In Queens, New York City, on 3 July 1921 Susan married

Lawrence S. Kubie (1896–1973), who would go on to become a noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. They produced two children and divorced in 1935. Susan would go on to study psychoanalysis in Europe, was a lifelong acquaintance of Anna Freud, and in 1943 helped found the William Hodson Community Center in the Bronx which was the first experimental psychiatric center for the elderly. She co-authored a book with Gertrude Landrau that would be influential in inspiring the creation of geriatric centers in the US.[4]

Hoch formally left McLean Hospital on 23 June 1905. On 1 July 1905, Hoch began a new position at the

state hospitals
.

While at Bloomingdale, in 1909 Hoch put in his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, and it was granted in August 1911 when he resided in New York.

Hoch was actively involved in psychiatric organizations. He was president of the New York Psychiatric Society in 1908 and in 1909; president of the American Psychopathological Society in 1913; and president of the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1913 and in 1914. He was a member of the American Neurological Society, the American Medico-Psychological Society (now the American Psychiatric Association), and the New York Neurological Society. He was a leader in planning a scientific psychiatric journal by the Institute titled Psychiatric Bulletin.

Legacy

In 6 March 1913, Hoch introduced Eugen Bleuler's disease concept of schizophrenia to elite American alienists and neurologists for the first time during a meeting of the New York Psychiatrical Society. According to him, "all of them made a lot of fun at the term, but it is remarkable what one can get used to."[6]

Hoch wrote most of one book, Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type, which was published posthumously after an ailing Hoch asked psychiatrist John T. MacCurdy to finish it for him after his death.[7]

He retired from the New York State Psychiatric Institute on 1 October 1917 because of ill health and moved to California. He was the live-in psychiatrist for Stanley McCormick at his Riven Rock estate in Santa Barbara.[8] He died on 23 September 1919 of nephritis at the University Hospital in San Francisco, California.

References

  1. ^ Kolb, Lawrence, Roizin, Leon (1993). The First Psychiatric Institute: How Research and Education Changed Practice. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press. pp. 39–48.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Kirby, George H. (November 1919). "Obituary: Dr. August Hoch". The State Hospital Quarterly. 5 (1): 74–78.
  3. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1919.02180110084007
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0837117690.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  5. S2CID 7968215
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-674-04739-6
    .
  7. ^ Hoch, August (1921). Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type. New York: The Macmillan Company.
  8. S2CID 34823163
    .

External links
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