Arthur T. Meyerson, M.D. (1936-2021)

Arthur T. Meyerson, M.D., a former president of the New York County Psychiatric Society and a distinguished life fellow of APA, died January 27, 2021, in New York City, N.Y. He was 84.

A lifelong New Yorker, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and graduated from Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Meyerson was a fierce advocate for people with serious mental illness and for community psychiatry. In April 1983, Meyerson told the Senate Committee on Aging that people with mental illness were being forced off Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) “in record numbers and without adequate evidence and examination.” He told the committee, “In APA’s opinion, there is clearly prejudice on the part of the Social Security Administration toward the mentally ill.”

The following year he appeared before the Senate Finance Committee as an APA representative to testify in support of a bill to reform the way claims for mental illness were reviewed under SSDI.

At that time of his testimony, he was a clinical professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He went on to be the chair of psychiatry and neurology at Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and professor and vice chair of University Behavioral Health Care at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Meyerson was also active in psychiatric education and had been an examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, where he met his wife Carol Bernstein, M.D., who would later serve as president of APA. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center in September 2001, he served as the clinical director for Disaster Psychiatry Outreach at “ground zero,” providing free therapy to first responders, victims of the attacks, and their families.

Dr. Meyerson had a keen interest in the arts, as well as science, history, and politics and enjoyed in-depth—and opinionated—conversations with friends and family. He was a lover of opera and was himself a singer in choruses and glee clubs.

He is survived by his wife, Carol; his daughter, Samantha Meyerson; and two children from his first marriage, Peter Meyerson and Jessica Meyerson; and several grandchildren. He will be missed. ■