William Alanson White

William Alanson White (24 January 1870 – 7 March 1937)[1] was an American neurologist and psychiatrist.

[2] In 1930, St. Elizabeth's was the only mental hospital in the United States with an American Medical Association-accredited internship.

Papers summarized: "Man's future lays in a new understanding of the meaning of heredity and environment in the application of new scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry and biology to the fields of psychology, and in the significant way in which man's 'very highly developed self-regard functions'".

[6] Lola (Purman) Thurston, whom he married in 1918, and a stepdaughter survived him when he died in Washington in March 1937.

[1] During White's tenure as superintendent, St. Elizabeths, which served Federal employees, military personnel, and residents of the District of Columbia, underwent significant reforms.

White did away with straitjackets for restraint and opened a beauty parlor for the female patients.

Korzybski characterized White as "extremely brilliant, very [well] read, very creative, very human, very warm, and very much interested in the future of psychiatry altogether.