Who is Richard Kogan, M.D.?

Who is the man who, at APA's 2006 annual meeting, will be conducting a psychological “autopsy” of Mozart in hopes of unmasking Mozart's creative genius? His name is Richard Kogan, M.D., and his life is fascinating.

Kogan's mother, a former music teacher, recognized his musical talent when he was only 4 years old and got him started on piano lessons. He studied piano at the Juilliard School from ages 6 to 18. But music wasn't the only influence in his life. His father was a gastroenterologist and took Kogan with him on medical rounds. Because of this exposure to medicine, and for other reasons, Kogan decided to attend Harvard College rather than a music conservatory, where the focus would have been almost exclusively on music. After that, Kogan decided to go to Harvard Medical School and become a physician.

Yet during college and medical school Kogan also continued to develop as a musician. The dean of Harvard Medical School created a special five-year schedule that allowed him to travel and play concerts between medical clerkships. Today Kogan is both a psychiatrist and an award-winning concert pianist, and he often melds his two passions—psychiatry and classical music—in intriguing ways.

For instance, Kogan has given talks about and played the music of other great classical musical composers besides Mozart at other APA annual meetings (Psychiatric News, April 19, 2002; April 18, 2003; May 7, 2004). He is now starting a DVD series called “Richard Kogan: Music and the Mind,” which will delve into the lives of some of the great classical music composers to see how their psychiatric illnesses or psychological issues might have influenced their musical output.

In fact, the first part of the DVD series, about the German composer Robert Schumann, is already available. The acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma wrote on the DVD cover: “Through a unique combination of brilliant psychiatric insights and superb musicianship, my musical colleague, Richard Kogan, presents a rich multidimensional profile revealing some of the most intimate sources of Robert Schumann's enormous creativity, imagination, and artistry.”