J. S. Kasanin

Jacob Sergi Kasanin (1897-1946) was a Russian born, American trained psychiatrist who introduced the term acute schizoaffective psychoses in 1933. He was known as Yasha to those close to him. and moved to the United States in 1915. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in 1919, which he had presented at the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia in May or June 1932. In his article Kasanin described 9 cases studies who had both schizophrenic or Psychotic symptoms and Affective symptoms.

Whilst at the Michael Reese Hospital he conducted research with Eugenia Hanfmann on Schizophrenic thinking this was following on from Vygotsky's work and was funded by the Masonic Foundation. Together they wrote Conceptual Thinking in Schizophrenia, from this a test was developed called the Hanfmann-Kasanin Test.

From 1939 he was Chief of Psychiatry at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco and Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF School of Medicine. He also engaged in Private Practice.

He was president of the Association of American Orthopsychiatrists from 1941 to 1942. During World War II he served as a psychiatrist to the 9th service command of the army.

He died suddenly on the 4 May 1946.

Publications Kasanin, Jacob. "THE BLOOD SUGAR CURVE IN MENTAL DISEASE: II. THE SCHIZOPHRENIC (DEMENTIA PRAECOX) GROUPS." Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry (Chicago)16.4 (1926): 414-19 Kasanin J., Knapp E. External factors causing variable results in the Kottmann reaction, 1926 Kasanin J., Petersen J.N. Psychosis as an early sign of epidemic encephalitis, 1926 The Acute Schizoaffective Psychoses. American Journal of Psychiatry 90, 1933 Pavlov's Theory of Schizophrenia, 1932 Bowman K.M., Kasanin J. Constitutional Schizophrenia, 1933 Kasanin J., Hanfmann E. An experimental study of concept formation in schizophrenia. Quantitative analysis of the results. American Journal of Psychiatry 95, ss. 35–48, 1938 Hanfmann E., Kasanin J. Conceptual thinking in schizophrenia. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Monographs, 1942 Language and Thought in Schizophrenia, 1944 Criteria of Therapy of War Neuroses American Journal of Psychiatry 104, 1947 Kasanin J.S. (ed.), Language and Thought in Schizophrenia. Collected papers. With a Preface by Nolan D.C. Lewis, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1951