Robert Galbraith Heath

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Robert Galbraith Heath (May 9, 1915 – September 21, 1999) was an American psychiatrist. He followed the theory of biological psychiatry, which holds that organic defects are the sole source of mental illness, and that consequently mental problems are treatable by physical means. He published 425 papers and three books. One of his first papers is dated 1946. He was profiled as a "famous American psychiatrist" in 1983 by Psychiatric Annals. Heath founded the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University, New Orleans, in 1949 and remained its chairman until 1980. He performed many experiments there involving electrical stimulation of the brain via surgically implanted electrodes. He placed deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes into the brains of more than 54 patients. He has been cited as the first, or one of the first, researcher(s) to have placed electrodes deep into the brains of living human patients. It has been suggested that this work was financed in part by the government, particularly the CIA or U.S. military. In 1972, he attempted using DBS to change a homosexual man to heterosexuality, which caused temporary arousal, but did not lead to long term change in attractions. Heath also experimented with psychosurgery, the drug bulbocapnine to induce stupor, and LSD, using African-American prisoners in the Louisiana State Penitentiary as experimental subjects. He worked on schizophrenia patients, which he regarded as an illness with a physical basis. Today Heath's work is considered highly controversial and is only rarely used as reference material.