Who are the influential figures that molded Turkish Psychiatry into what it
is today? This review introduces 12 psychiatrists who shaped psychiatry in
Turkey during the first century of the Republic. The article presents Rasit
Tahsin, the first neuropsychiatrist who establish an academic psychiatry
department in Turkey; Mazhar Osman, who had so much influence that
his name became a phrase to describe the mentally ill, and still lives on
with the institutions he built; Ihsan Sukru, the founder of neuropathology
in Turkey, a historical figure in viral encephalitis research; Fahrettin
Kerim Gokay, famous for his political career and his fight against alcohol
and tobacco; Rasim Adasal, a Cretian who is a cornerstone in Ankara
psychiatry and a well-known figure in Turkish society life; Abdulkadir
Ozbek, who introduced psychodrama to Anatolia-his ‘earth’; Leyla Zileli,
who disseminated psychoanalysis from Ankara to Turkey; Orhan Ozturk,
a founding figure for the Journal, the Association, and Hacettepe; Ayhan
Songar, a prominent figure in society and also in state bureaucracy;
Ozcan Koknel, the amiable face of psychiatry in society and a respected
voice; Oğuz Arkonaç, a vigorous advocate for the establishment of
contemporary psychiatry with DSM III in Bakırköy and then in Turkey;
and Gunsel Koptagel-Ilal, who progressed the work in the psychosomatics
as one of Turkey’s first female psychiatry academics. As with any list, we
acknowledge that absolute consensus is not possible; we are preparing a
more extensive selection to be published as a book next year. We present
our selection to your liking, hoping that one or more of our colleagues
reading this article will be included in the selection for the next century,
reflecting our collective conscious creation of psychiatry in Turkey.
Keywords: Neuropsychiatry, History, Medicine, Turkey, Psychoanalysis,
Psychosomatics