Paul R. McHugh

For other people named Paul McHugh, see Paul McHugh (disambiguation).
Paul McHugh
Born 1931
Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA
Occupation Psychiatrist/Neurologist, Medical Educator

Paul Rodney McHugh (born 1931) is an American psychiatrist, researcher, and educator. He is University Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine [1] and the author, co-author, or editor of seven books within his field.

Contents

Education

McHugh was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of a Lowell High School teacher and a homemaker,[2][3] He graduated from Harvard College in 1952 and from Harvard Medical School in 1956. While at Harvard he was "introduced to and ultimately directed away from the Freudian school of psychiatry." [4][5]

Following medical school, McHugh's education was influenced by George Thorn, the Physician-in-Chief at the Harvard-affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women's Hospital). Thorn was disillusioned with Freudian psychiatry and felt that those who devoted themselves to it became single-minded, failing to grow as doctors. Thorn encouraged McHugh to develop a different career path, suggesting that he enter the field of psychiatry by first studying neurology. At Thorn's recommendation, McHugh was accepted into the neurology and neuropathology residency program at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he studied for three years under Dr. Raymond Adams, the chief of the Neurology Department.[6]

From Massachusetts General, McHugh went to the Institute of Psychiatry in London (where he studied under Sir Aubrey Lewis and was supervised by James Gibbons and Gerald Russell). Following his year in London, McHugh went to the Division of Neuropsychiatry at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.[7]

Career

After his training, McHugh held various academic and administrative positions: Professor of Psychiatry at Cornell UniversitySchool of Medicine (where he founded the Bourne Behavioral Research Laboratory), Clinical Director and Director of Residency Education at the New York Hospital Westchester Division; Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Oregon Health Sciences Center at the University of Oregon.

From 1975 till 2001, McHugh was the Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry and the director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Johns Hopkins University. At the same time, he was psychiatrist-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is currently University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.[8]

His own research has focused on the neuroscientific foundations of motivated behaviors, psychiatric genetics, epidemiology, and neuropsychiatry.[9]

During the 1960s, McHugh co-authored papers on hydrocephalus, depression and suicide, and amygdaloid stimulation.

In 1975, McHugh co-authored (along with M. F. Folstein and S. E. Folstein) a paper entitled "Mini-Mental State: A Practical Method for Grading the Cognitive State of Patients for the Clinician." This paper details the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE), an exam consisting of just eleven questions, that quickly and accurately assesses patients for signs of dementia and other states of cognitive impairment. It is one of the most widely used tests in the mental health field.

In 1979, in his capacity as chair of the Department of Psychiatry, McHugh closed down the gender identity clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

In 1983, McHugh and colleague Phillip R. Slavney co-authored The Perspectives of Psychiatry, which presents the Johns Hopkins approach to psychiatry. The book "seeks to systematically apply the best work of behaviorists, psychotherapists, social scientists and other specialists long viewed as at odds with each other." [10] A second edition was published in 1998.

In 1992, McHugh treated the then-president of The American University, Richard Berendzen who'd been accused of making obscene phone calls to a 16-year-old baby sitter in Washington, D.C.[11]

McHugh also treated author Tom Wolfe for depression suffered following coronary bypass surgery. Wolfe dedicated his 1998 novel, A Man in Full to McHugh, “whose brilliance, comradeship and unfailing kindness saved the day.” [12]

In 1992, McHugh announced that he was going to leave Johns Hopkins and accept a position as director and CEO of Friends Hospital in Philadelphia. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine quickly sought to retain him and was successful in doing so.[13]

Throughout the decade of the 1990s, McHugh was active in debunking the idea of recovered memory—that is, the idea that people could suddenly and spontaneously remember childhood sexual abuse.[14][15]

In 2001, McHugh was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Council on Bioethics.[16] The Council was charged with the task of making recommendations as to what the U.S. federal government's policy regarding embryonic stem cells should be. McHugh was against using new lines of embryonic stem cells derived from in vitro fertilization but was in favor of the use of stem cells derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In SCNT, the nucleus of a cell is removed and replaced by another cell nucleus. McHugh felt that cells created in this fashion could be regarded as tissue; whereas, stem cells taken from embryos caused the killing of an unborn child.[17]

In 2002, McHugh was appointed to a lay panel assembled by the Roman Catholic Church to look into sexual abuse by priests.[18]

In 2010, McHugh made a motion in United States District Court, Northern District of California, to file an amicus curiae brief in the case of Perry et al. v. Schwarzenegger et al. that stated in part: "Amicus seeks to provide information to this Court bearing on its decision of whether to endorse a legal declaration that orientation is a fixed and immutable characteristic similar to race or gender. In the proposed brief, Amicus points out two highly relevant facts: (1) there is no scientific consensus on what homosexuality is, and the number of people who fit in the class “gay and lesbian” varies widely, depending on which definition of homosexuality is used and (2) there is no scientific consensus that homosexuality is exclusively or primarily genetic in origin." [19]

Theoretical Orientation

McHugh proposes that alterations in mental life be viewed from four perspectives:

  1. The perspective of disease: what is wrong with the structure of the brain itself? Depression, schizophrenia and dementia are often viewed from the disease perpective.
  2. The perspective of dimension: in what way does an individual's character cause him trouble (e.g., extraversion/introversion, high IQ/low IQ)?
  3. The perspective of behavior: what actions persist because they have been re-inforced, or are driven by biological means? Addiction, obesity, or paraphilias are often seen from the behavior perspective.
  4. The perspective of life-story: what has happened to a person which leads him to experience life as he does? Grief is often viewed from the life-story perspective.

He opposes the symptom-only system of classification presented in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (editions III, III-R, IV, and IV-TR) on the grounds that it classifies mental disorders according to observation of signs and symptoms while not addressing underlying causes.[20]

McHugh's theoretical orientation has led him to take controversial stands on a number of current psychiatric/medical issues including post traumatic stress disorder,[21] multiple personality disorder (MPD) or dissociative identity disorder (DID), physician assisted suicide,[22] and sexual reassignment surgery.

McHugh argues that multiple personality disorder (MPD; now known as dissociative identity disorder [DID]) is not, as has been maintained by some, a disorder in which a person actually has two or more distinct personalities. He further argues that MPD/DID is not "the linear consequence of child abuse" [23] Instead, McHugh argues that MPD/DID is an artifact—a symptom or symptoms designed to garner medical attention or sympathy. Other such artifacts include conversion disorder, Briquet syndrome, and malingering.

He generally opposes sexual reassignment surgery for both children and adults.[24] With respect to male infants (i.e., those with the XY chromosome) born with genital malformation, McHugh feels that parents should refrain from deciding to surgically alter them to appear female. Instead, he feels that these children should be allowed to mature at which point they themselves can make an informed decision about what surgery to obtain, if any. When McHugh became head of Johns Hopkins psychiatry department in 1975, he fought John Money and other founders of the school's pioneering Gender Identity Clinic to have it successfully shut down.[25]

McHugh believes that adult males who wish to surgically alter themselves to appear anatomically female fall into two main groups: (1) "conflicted and guilt-ridden homosexual men"[26] and (2) "heterosexual (and some bisexual) males who found intense sexual arousal in cross-dressing as females".[27] McHugh, had several other impressions: First, "they [the transgendered individuals] were little changed in their psychological condition. They had much the same problems with relationships, work, and emotions as before. The hope that they would emerge now from their emotional difficulties to flourish psychologically had not been fulfilled".[28] Second, they expressed little interest in and seemed indifferent to babies or children (typically female interests).[29] Third, they came off as caricatures of the opposite sex.[30]

Social, Political, and Religious Views

Paul McHugh is a practicing Catholic.[31] He is a Democrat who describes himself as "religiously orthodox, politically liberal and culturally conservative -- a believer in marriage and the Marines, a supporter of institutions and family values." [32]

Books by Paul R. McHugh

Author

Co-Author

Editor

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

References

  1. ^ Barstow, David (2009-07-26). "An Abortion Battle, Fought to the Death". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/us/26tiller.html?pagewanted=6&hpw. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 
  2. ^ Goode, Erica (August 5, 2002). "Psychiatrist Says He Was Surprised by Furor Over His Role on Abuse Panel". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/us/psychiatrist-says-he-was-surprised-by-furor-over-his-role-on-abuse-panel.html?pagewanted=all. 
  3. ^ McHugh, Paul R. (2006). The mind has mountains: Reflections on society and psychiatry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, copyright page.
  4. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York, DANA, p. 26
  5. ^ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W99/profile.html#top
  6. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York, DANA, p. 26-29
  7. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York, DANA, p. 31
  8. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York, DANA Press.
  9. ^ http://www.usccb.org/comm/mchugh.shtml
  10. ^ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W99/profile.html#top
  11. ^ http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/paul-mchugh.html
  12. ^ Wolfe, Tom. (1998). A Man in Full. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
  13. ^ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W99/profile.html#top
  14. ^ http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W99/profile.html#top
  15. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2008). Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. New York, DANA, p. 26
  16. ^ http://www.usccb.org/comm/mchugh.shtml
  17. ^ "Zygote and 'Clonote': The ethical use of embryonic stem cells. in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 237-241.
  18. ^ Goode, Erica (August 5, 2002). "Psychiatrist Says He Was Surprised by Furor Over His Role on Abuse Panel". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/us/psychiatrist-says-he-was-surprised-by-furor-over-his-role-on-abuse-panel.html?pagewanted=all. 
  19. ^ http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2009cv02292/215270/377/0.pdf
  20. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "How psychiatry lost its way." In The mind has mountains: Reflections on society and psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 47-59.
  21. ^ McHugh PR, Treisman G. PTSD: a problematic diagnostic category. J Anxiety Disord. 2007;21(2):211-22. Epub 2006 Nov 7. Review. PMID 17085011
  22. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "The Kevorkian Epidemic" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  23. ^ "Dissociative Identity Disorder Is a Socially Constructed Artifact" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 139.
  24. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "Surgical Sex" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.220-228
  25. ^ Identity Crisis, Baltimore Style magazine, January/February 2007
  26. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "Surgical Sex" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.222
  27. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "Surgical Sex" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.222
  28. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "Surgical Sex" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.221
  29. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "Surgical Sex" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.220
  30. ^ McHugh, P. R. (2006). "Surgical Sex" in The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.220
  31. ^ Goode, Erica (August 5, 2002). "Psychiatrist Says He Was Surprised by Furor Over His Role on Abuse Panel". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/us/psychiatrist-says-he-was-surprised-by-furor-over-his-role-on-abuse-panel.html?pagewanted=all. 
  32. ^ Goode, Erica (August 5, 2002). "Psychiatrist Says He Was Surprised by Furor Over His Role on Abuse Panel". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/us/psychiatrist-says-he-was-surprised-by-furor-over-his-role-on-abuse-panel.html?pagewanted=all. 

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