Aaron Rosanoff
{{Short description|Russian-American psychiatrist (1878–1943)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{no footnotes|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Aaron Rosanoff
| image = Aaron J. Rosanoff 1940 Edit.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Rosanoff {{circa}} 1940
| office1 = Director of the California Department of Institutions
| appointed1 = Culbert Olson
| term_start1 = January 2, 1939
| term_end1 = July 31, 1942
| predecessor1 = Harry Lutgens
| successor1 = Fred Otis Butler
| birth_date = {{birth date|1878|06|26}}
| birth_place = Pinsk, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire
| death_date = {{death date|1943|01|07}} (aged 64)
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| citizenship =
| nationality = Russia
| alma_mater = Cornell University
| known_for =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| footnotes =
| spouse = {{marriage|Isabel Jean Ross|1911}}
| children = 4
| website =
}}
Aaron Joshua Rosanoff (26 June 1878 – 7 January 1943) was an American psychiatrist who studied psychosis and was closely associated with Eugenics Record Office and a member of the Eugenics Research Association.
Life and career
Born in Belarus, Rosanoff emigrated to the United States in 1891 and received an M.D. from Cornell in 1900. He worked as a physician at Kings Park Hospital from 1901 to 1922, and as a psychiatrist for the L.A. Diagnostic Clinic from 1922 until his death. He was also California's State Director of Institutions and State Commissioner of Lunacy from 1939{{cite book |last1=Thurman |first1=V. E. |title=Who's Who in the New Deal (California edition) |date=1940 |publisher=New Deal Historical Society |location=Los Angeles |page=50 |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinnewdeal00thur/page/50/mode/1up |access-date=8 April 2025}} until his resignation in 1942.{{cite book |last1=Peek |first1=Paul |authorlink=Paul Peek (politician) |title=California Blue Book, 1942 |date=1942 |publisher=California State Printing Office |location=Sacramento |page=172 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112039337529&seq=192&view=1up |access-date=16 May 2025}}{{cite news |title=Rosanoff Says He Will Not Seek State Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/701467447/?match=1&terms=%22aaron%20rosanoff%22 |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=The Fresno Bee |date=22 July 1942 |location=Fresno}}
Closely associated with Eugenics Record Office and a member of the Eugenics Research Association, Rosanoff was a member of the American Eugenics Society Advisory council from 1923 to 1935. He was also a member of the editorial Board of the American Journal of Psychiatry. In 1905 he translated Manual of Psychiatry by Joseph Rogues de Fursac, a medical school textbook which went through several editions and from 1927 appeared only under Rosanoff's name.
Work
Rosanoff studied both the physiological and genetic factors that lead to various psychosis, and is best known for his Theory of Personality, which broke down the human personality into seven scales: Normal, Hysteroid, Manic, Depressive, Autistic, Paranoid, and Epileptoid. These scales first modelled in the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale personality test in 1935. These scales were used into the 1970s, notably by Chandler McLeod, who use a modified Humm system.
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- Barry Mehler, A History of the American Eugenics Society, Ph.D. dissertation, 1988, University of Illinois.
External links
- {{Gutenberg author|id=3528}}
- [https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Rosanoff%2C%20A%2E%20J%2E%20%28Aaron%20Joshua%29%2C%201878%2D1943 Works by Aaron Rosanoff] at the Online Books Page
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosanoff, Aaron Joseph}}
Category:American Eugenics Society members
Category:American psychiatrists
Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:People from Pinsky Uyezd
Category:Jews from the Russian Empire
Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Category:Culbert Olson administration personnel
Category:Culbert Olson political appointees
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