Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry - About the Authors

Harold I. Kaplan, M.D.

On January 15,1998, the field of psychiatry lost a towering figure with the death of Harold I. Kaplan, M.D., who succumbed to a massive stoke at the age of 7O. Dr. Kaplan was Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and Attending Psychiatrist at Tisch, Bellevue and Lenox Hill Hospitals.

Dr. Kaplan was the founding editor of the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, published by Williams & Wilkins of Baltimore, a text that has been translated into 11 languages and used by generations of psychiatrists in this country and around the world. He was the editor of an additional 30 books in psychiatry including Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, now in its eighth edition.

Dr. Kaplan was a graduate of New York University and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from New York Medical College in 1949 at the age of 21 -one of the youngest graduates in the history of the school. He interned at Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn, and served his psychiatric residency training at Kingsbridge Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital, New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, and Jewish Board of Guardians (in child psychiatry).

Prior to joining the faculty at NYU School of Medicine in 1980, Dr. Kaplan was Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College. During his tenure there, he was the principal investigator of 10 educational grants in psychiatry from the National Institute of Mental Health, several specializing in the psychiatric training of women physicians. In 1957, he was certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has served as an Assistant and Associate Examiner of the American Board for 12 years. He received a Certificate of Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association for his work as chairman of their Committee on Education during 1973-1975. Professor Kaplan was certified in psychoanalysis in 1955 by New York Medical College. He was a life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American College of Physicians and the New York Academy of Medicine, a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Society, and the recipient of numerous awards Ò including the Founders Day Award of New York University - that recognized his extraordinary talents and capabilities.

An outpouring of affection among the 2,000 psychiatrists and behavioral scientists who contributed to one or more of his textbooks occurred in response to his passing. He was described by editor emeritus of the American Journal of Psychiatry as "a prime mover in creating our profession's first and always most authoritative major textbook."

He was a brilliant and humane educator. In the eulogy at his funeral attended by hundreds of colleagues, friends and patients, he was described as a man whose credo was humanism who could serve as a model for every psychiatrist and physician.

Dr. Kaplan leaves his wife, the actress Nancy Barrett, and three children, Peter Kaplan M.D., Philip Kaplan, M.D., and Jennifer Kaplan, all of New York City. He was buried as Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla. His memory will live on in the forthcoming edition of the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, scheduled for publication in 1999, in those editions to follow and in the hearts of all those who knew him.