“The Debate Between Two of the Founders of American Psychiatric Genetics, Aaron Rosanoff and Abraham Myerson, on Mendelian Models for Psychiatric Illness (1911–61917107ya)”, Kenneth S. Kendler2021-09-14 (; similar)⁠:

In 1911, Aaron Rosanoff published among the first pedigree studies of psychiatric illness, and the first ever in the United States, claiming that the neuropathic constitution was transmitted in as a Mendelian recessive disorder. In 1917, Abraham Myerson harshly critiqued that study, focusing on the very wide phenotypic definition of neuropathic constitution.

Here, I describe Rosanoff and Myerson’s backgrounds, the details of Rosanoff’s study, and Myerson’s critique and put this controversy in the context of the history of psychiatric genetics, emphasizing 4 themes:

  1. the close interrelationship between psychiatric diagnosis and models of genetic transmission,

  2. the strong attraction of Mendelian models to psychiatric geneticists after their 1900 rediscovery,

  3. the controversy about whether familial transmission of psychiatric illness is largely homogeneous or heterogeneous, and

  4. the methods taken by researchers to the problems of psychiatric genetics that typically emerged as part of their broader approach to the nature of psychiatric illness.

[Keywords: psychiatric genetics, history, Mendelian models, Rosanoff, Myerson]

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The Debate Between Two of the Founders of American Psychiatric Genetics, Aaron Rosanoff and Abraham Myerson, on Mendelian Models for Psychiatric Illness (1911–61917107ya)