You are here: Psychiatry Home > History of the Discipline

Print View Login

History of the Discipline

The Faculty of Medicine was established by a University Council statute in 1885. Clinical years were instituted in 1887 and it is significant that emotional factors in the practise of medicine were recognised at that time, with the appointment of Alexander Stuart Paterson, an Edinburgh medical graduate, as Lecturer in Lunacy.

The term Lunacy was changed to Insanity in the regulations and schedules of the University in 1902 and in 1914 it became Psychological Medicine. Psychological Medicine was changed to Mental Health in 1963 and to Psychiatry in 1971. These changes reflected prevailing community attitudes about stigma associated with psychiatric conditions.

Alexander Stuart Paterson was Lecturer from 1887 to 1896, when the dispute between the Adelaide Hospital and the State Government resulted in the cessation of clinical teaching for several years. Other Lecturers have included William Lennox Cleland (1902-1911), Michael Henry Downey (1912-1933), Hugh McIntyre Birch (1934-1948) and Harry Milton Southwood (1949-1963).

In 1963 William Alexander Cramond was appointed as the first Professor of Mental Health in the Faculty of Medicine. He was succeeded by Issy Pilowsky as Professor of Psychiatry from 1971 to 1997. Robert John Kosky was Professor of Child Psychiatry from 1988 to 1999; Alexander Cowell McFarlane was appointed Professor of Community Psychiatry and Rehabilitation in 1990; David John Jarrett was Professor of Gerontology from 1992 to 1997; Robert Donald Goldney was appointed Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in 1992 and then Professor of Psychiatry at The Adelaide Clinic from 1996;  Robert John Barrett was Professor of Psychiatry at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1998 to 2007; Helen Russell Winefield was the first psychologist to be appointed Professor in the Discipline of Psychiatry from 2007; Cherrie Ann Galletly was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at the Adelaide Clinic in 2007; and Robert Donald Goldney was appointed Professor and Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2007.

Although many perceive psychiatry to be a relatively modern discipline, under different names it has had a prominent place in teaching at the University of Adelaide since clinical teaching commenced at the Royal Adelaide Hospital over a hundred years ago.

From those beginnings the University of Adelaide Discipline of Psychiatry now operates as a multi-campus discipline, with an academic presence at the Royal Adelaide, the Queen Elizabeth, the Lyell McEwin and the Women's and Children's Hospitals and The Adelaide Clinic, as well as there being clinical academic input from clinicians at the Modbury Hospital, and from Community Services.

Further historical information can be obtained from the Jepson Library which has a collection of nineteenth century hospital records, which provides a fascinating insight into psychological aspects of the practise of medicine 100 years ago, and the histories of the Medical School of the University of Adelaide and of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Further reading:

Edgeloe, VA (1991) The Medical School of the University of Adelaide: A brief history from an Administrative viewpoint.

Hughes, J Escort, (1982) A history of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.