Skip to main content
Full access
Perspectives
Published Online: 1 October 2012

The Massachusetts Mental Health Center: Going Forward After 100 Years

The Massachusetts Mental Health Center in 1912 (left) and 2012 (right). Drawings by Matcheri S. Keshavan.
The Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC) recently reopened near its original site in Boston after 8 years of temporary relocation, exactly 100 years after its creation in 1912 (1).
The MMHC (originally the Boston Psychopathic Hospital) was created as a partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, charged with the care of severely afflicted individuals, many of them newly arrived immigrants with no family or financial supports, and Harvard University. Its original mission was to treat the acutely ill and to send the more chronically and severely ill patients to nearby state hospitals. As a Harvard-staffed institution, however, it developed programs of humane care using the then-prevalent models of psychoanalysis and psychobiology, family treatment, and social work. MMHC became one of the country’s leading centers for mental health training; many MMHC trainees went on to become department chairpersons, directors of the National Institute of Mental Health, presidents of professional societies, and leading mental health researchers and administrators. The Nobel laureate Eric Kandel said in 1988, “Had I not trained…in psychiatry (at MMHC) I most likely would not be working on the problems I now work on and love” (from unpublished commemoration). However, by 2003 the deteriorating building was closed and the clinical services moved to a distant public health hospital. The academic fabric and MMHC’s vision appeared tattered and the future uncertain.
As one MMHC client said, “The storm doesn’t last forever.” Fortunately, a unique private/public partnership involving the city of Boston (represented by the Mayor, who insisted on returning MMHC to its original location), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, MMHC clients, advocates, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, other academic partners, and Mission Hill neighbors began to collaborate on rebuilding MMHC on or near its original location in the Harvard-Longwood medical area. In November 2011, two new MMHC buildings opened. One is for a partial hospitalization program and a transitional shelter program for mentally ill homeless men and women. The other is the main building, which provides outpatient treatment, research and training programs, and an innovative medical clinic to serve MMHC clients living with chronic mental illness. The original library has also been recreated. MMHC’s renewed vision seeks to bring together public sector psychiatry, university-based teaching, and translational neuroscience research with a focus on evidence-based and early interventions for serious mental illness, while maintaining the humane and compassionate approach to care MMHC has always emphasized.

Footnote

The authors thank David Jimerson, Kitty Howard, Laura Rood, and Clifford Robinson for their input.

Reference

1.
Tsuang MT: The Massachusetts Mental Health Center (images in psychiatry). Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:423

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to American Journal of Psychiatry
Go to American Journal of Psychiatry
American Journal of Psychiatry
Pages: 1037
PubMed: 23032384

History

Accepted: May 2012
Published online: 1 October 2012
Published in print: October 2012

Authors

Details

Carl Salzman, M.D.
From the Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Larry J. Seidman, Ph.D.
From the Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Matcheri S. Keshavan, M.D.
From the Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Notes

Address correspondence to Dr. Salzman ([email protected]).

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Format
Citation style
Style
Copy to clipboard

View Options

View options

PDF/EPUB

View PDF/EPUB

Login options

Already a subscriber? Access your subscription through your login credentials or your institution for full access to this article.

Personal login Institutional Login Open Athens login
Purchase Options

Purchase this article to access the full text.

PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry

PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry

Not a subscriber?

Subscribe Now / Learn More

PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.

Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share article link

Share