Johns Hopkins Medicine - Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

The Henry Phipps Psychiatric Service

The Johns Hopkins Hospital opened in 1889, the gift of Quaker merchant Johns Hopkins, who had made his fortune in Baltimore. It was his vision to unite in a single enterprise a threefold mission: to produce superior physicians, to seek new knowledge for the advancement of medicine, and to give the finest patient care. Today the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions include state-of-the-art inpatient and outpatient facilities and research laboratories. The Johns Hopkins Hospital has more than 1,000 beds, of which 101 belong to the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

The Henry Phipps Psychiatric Service is located in the Adolf Meyer Building. Dedicated in 1982, this facility brings together the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurology and Neurosurgery under one roof. This Psychiatry and Neurosciences Center is an innovative approach to fostering collaboration in patient care, teaching and research among members of three related disciplines.

The Psychiatric Inpatient Service has beds distributed through six autonomous units. In addition to providing care for general psychiatric disorders, each unit has developed a focused interest in a special area, with coordinated inpatient and outpatient components. The Outpatient Department is organized into clinics which provide general care and specialty clinics that focus on the diagnosis and treatment of distinct problem areas.

Before 1982, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences was located in the Phipps Building. This historic landmark is still the site of numerous departmental functions including guest lectures and seminars. Currently the Adolf Meyer Building houses the inpatient units, outpatient clinics, state-of-the-art laboratories and all faculty and resident offices. The Meyer Library, located on the 8th floor of the Meyer building, contains pertinent journals and texts, not only for psychiatry but all the neurosciences. The library is available to all faculty, staff and residents 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additional resources are available through the Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins, one of the great medical libraries of the world.

The Phipps Psychiatric Clinic in 1913

History of the Department

Upon visiting the Tuberculosis Division he had founded at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the philanthropist Henry Phipps asked William Welch, Dean of the Medical Faculty, whether there were any projects he could sponsor. Welch gave Phipps a copy of Clifford Beers's A Mind That Found Itself, and a month later, in June of 1908, the endowment of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic was publicly announced. Adolf Meyer was invited to develop a Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, and in April 1913, the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic was opened. Since then, the department has occupied a distinguished place in the history of psychiatry, with a continuous tradition of excellence in patient care, teaching, and research.

Research conducted at Johns Hopkins has far-reaching impacts, affecting how diseases are diagnosed and treated throughout the world. This research continues to flourish with the support of grateful patients, alumni and friends who choose to provide through their philanthropy.

Our Chairman

The chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., M.D.,Henry Phipps Professor and Psychiatrist-in-Chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Click here for biographical information as well as clinical and research interests. 

Our Perspective

The perspective of the department is explained in a lecture by Paul R. McHugh M.D., Chairman Emeritus entitled:

A Structure For Psychiatry At The Century's Turn
The View From Johns Hopkins

Paul R. McHugh M.D.
Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Lecture read to Section of Psychiatry, 11 June 1991
Burroughs Wellcome Visiting Professor in Clinical Medicine

Published in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1992; 85: 483-487

Click here for a PDF version of the published lecture.