This research paper summarizes the life, contributions to criminology and influence of Isaac Ray (1807-1881). A man of many interests and talents, Ray pursued a long and distinguished career as a psychiatrist, a mental health administrator, writer, lecturer and community leader. He was the leading figure in the United States in the 19th century in the field of forensic psychiatry. He is best known for his efforts, sustained over several decades, to bring about reforms in the way in which criminal courts determined whether a defendant was insane. Ray wielded great influence within his profession. His views on the insanity defense were quoted by courts in America and Great Britain. They were highly controversial because he challenged the legal and scientific status quo and was an uncompromising advocate of his points of view. Some of his recommendations were over time adopted, while many others were rejected for various reasons.
Highlights of Ray's Early Life and Career
Ray was born in 1807 to an established Boston North Shore family which had been engaged since colonial times in New England's maritime trade. His father, who died when he was seven, was a ship captain. Ray received a superb education, at Philips Exeter Academy and at Bowdoin College and Medical School where he graduated with a medical degree in 1827. He later apprenticed under a local Portland, Maine physician, and Dr. George Shattuck, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty. In 1831, he married his wife Abigail, who later survived his death, and they had two children.
Small town medical practices in Portland and in Eastport, Maine did not satisfy Ray's broader interests. In Portland, he gave lectures on botany and natural history. In the early 1830s, he became interested in phrenology, a field of medical research, which held that cranial structures, such as the size and shape of the skull, influenced human behavior. Overholser (1954, September-Octobe...