James Vance May (1873–1947) was an Americanpsychiatrist[1] and an early proponent forstatistical studies andclassification ofmental diseases. He was among the first to recognize mental disease as apublic health problem, a view that did not gain recognition and acceptance for many years.
May was born inLawrence, Kansas. He received his AB at theUniversity of Kansas in 1894 and his medical degree at theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1899. He was a resident at thePennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia for one year then moved to theBrigham Hall Hospital in Canandaigua, New York, a privatemental hospital where he was in charge of thepathology department and its laboratory. From 1900 to 1902, he served in theU.S. Army during thePhilippine insurrection (Philippine War of Independence;Spanish–American War).
Following his Army service, he began to work at theNew York State Mental Hospital System in Central Islip, New York, but after a short stay, he transferred to theBinghamton State Hospital and stayed until 1911. He became superintendent of theMatteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in 1911, and then moved to another position as medical member of theNew York State Hospital Commission. In 1916, he moved to Massachusetts to become the superintendent of theGrafton State Hospital. Soon thereafter, he transferred to theBoston State Hospital where he stayed as superintendent from 1912 to 1936.
In 1913, theAmerican Medico Psychological Association (later theAmerican Psychiatric Association) established a committee on statistics and May was appointed to serve as a committee member. He stayed involved with the committee for nineteen years and was the committee chair for ten years. As an administrator, he was interested in mental hospital statistics and the classification of mental diseases, which were not uniform in the United States. His interest and work in these areas culminated in a publication in 1922 of the bookMental Disease: A Public Health Problem, at a time when mental disease was not viewed as a public health issue. The committee on statistics proposed a system of classification ofmental disease which was adopted by the organization and became a basis for future change in keeping with advancements inpsychiatric research and practice.
May contributed numerous research articles to the scholarly literature. He spokeGerman and nearly completed a German-English dictionary of psychiatric terms. He translated a book onschizophrenia by the German psychiatristKarl Wilmanns.
He was a member of many professional and civic groups including theNew England Psychiatric Society (president, 1931–1934), theAmerican Psychiatric Association (president, 1932–1933), board of directors of theMassachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene, theBoston Occupational Therapy Society, theBoston City Club, theAmerican Legion, and theRoyal Medical Psychological Society of Great Britain.
May died in 1947.