Joseph Workman

Joseph Workman (26 May 1805 – 15 April 1894) was an Irish-born Canadian physician, businessman, and politician. He worked as a medical superintendent of the Toronto Provincial Lunatic Asylum (now called the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) from 1854 to 1875.

For changing psychiatry in Ontario during the 19th century, he is considered to be the "Nestor of Canadian alienists," which has been interpreted as the "father" of Canadian psychiatry. He is one of the most respected and highly regarded physicians in Canada at that time.

Biography

Early life and family Joseph Workman was born on 26 May 1805 in Ballymacash, a hamlet near Lisburn in Northern Ireland, to a Presbyterian family. His father is Joseph Workman and her mother is Catharine Goudie. He was the 4th son out of nine children.

Reverend Workman soon died of a deep depression in 1633 following his excommunication, leaving behind his family.

Meanwhile, his father taught him, alongside Alexander and William, surveying. In 1826, at the age of 21, he was appointed at a position at the Ordnance Survey in Ireland, where he spent three years. Because of poverty, the discrimination bought by the Protestant Ascendancy, and the incoming great Irish famine, the Workmans were forced to gradually move to Montreal. Workman became a permanent superintendent in April 1854, following's Rolph solicitation for him to be made permanent, winning the majority vote against John Hunter Robinson, a friend of Lord Elgin.

He retired as medical superintendent in December 6, 1875.

Later years His later years involved translating Italian and Spanish articles on psychiatry and receiving many honors. He was elected the president of the Canadian Medical Association in 1877, the Toronto Medical Society in 1878, and the Ontario Medical Association in 1881. He was the first Canadian psychiatrist to be made honorary member of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association of Great Britain.

Death and legacy Workman died on April 15, 1894 at his home in Toronto. Daniel Hack Tuke called him the "Nestor of Canadian alienists" in a section regarding the Provision for the Insane in Canada in the first volume of his book A Dictionary of Psychological Medicine. The phrase has been interpreted as meaning "Father" or "Old Mentor" of Canadian psychiatry and historians continued to use that phrase in honor of Workman. On his obituary written by Charles Kirk Clarke, he wrote as "one of the oldest and most eminent members of the American Medico-Psychological Society." The Workman Hall, the largest Hall in the First Unitarian Congregation, was named after Joseph and Benjamin Workman.