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Dr. E. Fuller Torrey

For a PDF Version of Dr. Torrey's Biography, click here 

E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., is a research psychiatrist specializing in schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. He is the founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center and the Executive Director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, which supports research on schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. 

resized_dr._torrey_picHis work at the Stanley Medical Research Institute includes participating in ongoing collaborative research on viruses and other infectious agents as a cause of these diseases. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

 

From 1976 to 1985, he was on the clinical staff of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, specializing in the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders. From 1988 to 1992, Dr. Torrey directed a study of identical twins with schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. His research has explored viruses as a possible cause of these disorders and he has carried out research in Ireland and Papua New Guinea.

Dr. Torrey was educated at Princeton University (B.A., Magna Cum Laude), McGill University School of Medicine (M.D.), and Stanford University (M.A. in Anthropology), and trained in psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He practiced general medicine in Ethiopia for two years as a Peace Corps physician, in the South Bronx in an O.E.O. Health Center, and in Alaska in the Indian Health Service. From 1970 to 1975, he was a special assistant to the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

He is the author of 20 books and more than 200 lay and professional papers. Some of his books have been translated into Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

Dr. Torrey has appeared on national radio and television (outlets like NPR, Oprah, 20/20, 60 Minutes, and Dateline) and has written for many newspapers. He received two Commendation Medals by the U.S. Public Health Service, a 1984 Special Families Award from NAMI, a 1991 National Caring Award, in 1999 received a research award from the International Congress of Schizophrenia and a humanitarian award from NARSAD, and a 2005 tribute included in NAMI's 25th Anniversary Celebratory Donor Wall. Born in Utica, New York, in 1937, he is married with two children.

Books by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey

-Surviving Schizophrenia : A Manual for Families, Consumers and Providers (5th edition)
576 pages 5th edition (March 2006) Collins; ISBN: 0060842598

-Beasts of the Earth: Animals, Humans, and Disease
191 pages (March 2005) Rutgers University Press; ISBN: 0813535719

-The Invisible Plague: The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present
400 pages (January 2002) Rutgers University Press; ISBN: 0813530032

-Surviving Manic-Depressive Illness
416 pages (January 8, 2002) Basic Books; ISBN: 0465086632

-Surviving Schizophrenia : A Manual for Families, Consumers and Providers (4th edition)
480 pages 4th edition (May 8, 2001) Quill; ISBN: 0060959193 (Harper and Row, 1st ed. 1983, 2nd ed. 1988, 3rd ed. 1994)

-Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture
362 pages (September 15, 1999) Lucas Books; ISBN: 1929636008 (Harper Collins 1992)

-Out of the Shadows : Confronting America's Mental Illness Crisis
244 pages (December 1996) John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471161616

-Schizophrenia and Manic-Depressive Disorder: The Biological Roots of Mental Illness as Revealed by a Landmark Study of Identical Twins – Basic Books, 1994, Senior Author

-Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill: The Abuse of Jails As Mental Hospitals. Senior author. Public Citizen Health Research Group and NAMI, 1992

-Nowhere to Go: The Tragic Odyssey of the Homeless Mentally Ill – Harper and Row, 1988.

-Care of the Seriously Mentally Ill: A Rating of State Programs – 1986, 1988, 1990 editions with Sidney M. Wolfe, Health Research Group and Laurie Flynn, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

-Witchdoctors and Psychiatrists – Harper and Row, 1986 (originally published as The Mind Game.)

-The Roots of Treason – McGraw Hill, 1983; nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as one of the best biographies of 1983

-Schizophrenia and Civilization – Jason Aronson Publishers, 1980

Additional Information

-Read Dr. Torrey's Curriculum Vitae

-Interested in interviewing Dr. Torrey? Schedule an interview by sending an e-mail to the Treatment Advocacy Center