Wortis, Joseph, 1906-1995

During his career, Dr. Wortis served as longtime editor of the journal Biological Psychiatry and was associated with Bellevue Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical School, the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, New York University Medical College, Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, Maimonides Medical Center and the State University at Stony Brook, where he was a professor. He was a longstanding Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. He introduced insulin shock treatment for schizophrenia to the US after observing Manfred Sakel's use of the procedure in Vienna in 1935. A disciple of Ellis, Dr. Wortis held a fellowship in psychiatry under the guidance of Ellis and Dr. Adolf Meyer from 1934 to 1941. Wortis undertook a didactic analysis -- for educational purposes -- with Freud in Vienna for nearly four months in 1934, when Freud was 78. He was a contributor to the activities of the American Soviet Medical Association, collaborating with Soviet medical colleagues on their studies and, having taught himself Russian, was involved with the translation of books, articles and summaries from Russian to English. He served on the Board of editors for the American Review of Soviet Medicine, published from 1943 to 1948.