Kenneth Altshuler

Biography

Dr. Altshuler received his B.A. from Cornell (1948) and his M.D. from the University of Buffalo (1952). He was board certified in Psychiatry in 1961 and certified in Psychoanalytic Medicine by Columbia University in 1962. He is currently Stanton Sharp Professor (2000 - ), and former Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (1977 - 2000). Prior to this appointment, Dr. Altshuler was Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he was also Director of Medical Education (Psychiatry) and a Training Analyst at the University's Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Research. He has written over 140 papers and books, and researched in such varied fields as genetics, geriatrics, early total deafness, psychoanalysis, sleep and dreams, and services research. He received the Thornton Wilson Award in genetics and preventive psychiatry in 1961, the Merit Award of the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine in 1963, an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C. in 1972. He also received a Certificate of Significant Achievement from the American Psychiatric Association (Hospital and Community Division) in 1976 and again in 1995. He was Principal Investigator of "Essential Aspects of Deafness," which combined international research and the establishment of nationwide services for the deaf in Yugoslavia. Dr. Altshuler was a founder and Vice President of the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry, and was made an Honorary Life Member in 1981. He has been a Training Analyst and moving force in establishing the Dallas Psychoanalytic Institute; a Director of the National Board of Medical Examiners, and chair of its Psychiatry Test Committee; a Director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (1989 - ) and President in 1996; and President of the American Association of Chairmen of Departments of Psychiatry (1990-1991). As Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Southwestern Medical School, he raised over $50 million dollars, including funds for ten named chairs and two research centers in psychiatry. In 1983 he became the first holder of the Stanton Sharp Chair in Psychiatry and in 1989, Zale Lipshy University Hospital named its psychiatric unit in his honor. Programs he established have twice won the American Psychiatric Association's Certificate of Significant Achievement, and he has twice been given the Dallas County Mental Health Association's award for Distinguished Community Service, the second time (1992) for conceiving and having obtained a legislative line item to fund Mental Health Connections, a $9.2 million public-academic partnership providing new community services and carrying $750,000 annually for research aimed at improving service effectiveness. In 1993 the State University of New York at Buffalo honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus, and in 1996, the Dallas County MHMR Center named its Trail Blazer Award after Dr. Altshuler and installed him as its first recipient. In 1996, he was given the Psychiatric Excellence Award by the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians, and Alumnus of the Decade (1950-59) Centennial Award from Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. In 1997, Dr. Altshuler received the Texas Star Award from the Mental Health Association of Texas for outstanding community service in mental health. He was also honored by Dallas County MHMR when they renamed a clinic in his honor. In 1999, then Governor George W. Bush appointed him a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

Research Interest

Psychiatry