Joseph Wortis

Josef Wortis was an American psychiatrist, longtime editor of the scientific journal Biological Psychiatry, and a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Wortis studied in New York City, Vienna, and London and was a student of the English psychologist Havelock Ellis. In 1934 he spent 4 months in psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. He published a book about this experience in 1954. While in Vienna, he observed Manfred Sakel perform insulin shock therapy of schizophrenia and introduced this treatment subsequently in the United States. For his book Soviet Psychiatry Wortis visited the Soviet Union and taught himself Russian. Because of this, he was investigated by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security in 1953. Over his career, Wortis worked at several hospitals and medical schools, including Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the New York University School of Medicine. Wortis was the founding editor of the journal Biological Psychiatry in 1965 and remained in this function until 1992. Wortis died in 1995 at the age of 88.