Clarence Bynold Farrar, SM (November 27, 1874 – June 3, 1970) was an influential American-Canadian psychiatrist, the first Director of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital, and editor of The American Journal of Psychiatry for 34 years.
Early Life and Education
Farrar was born in Cattaraugus, New York. He studied at Allegheny College and Harvard University, graduating from Harvard in 1896. He earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1900, where he studied under William Osler. He subsequently pursued postgraduate study in Europe under Emil Kraepelin, Franz Nissl, and Alois Alzheimer, working in Heidelberg, Paris, and London from 1902 to 1904.
Career
Farrar held positions at several institutions over his career, including:
- Assistant physician and director of laboratories at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Maryland
- Associate in psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Medical School
- Assistant physician at Trenton State Hospital
- Lecturer in abnormal psychology at Princeton University
- Head of Homewood Sanitarium in Guelph, Ontario
- Medical director of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital
- Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto (1925–1947)
He served as the second Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto from 1925 until 1947, retiring as professor emeritus. During World War I, he served as a chief psychiatrist for the Canadian Army, researching psychiatric cases of soldiers with shell shock, and published his findings with Charles Kirk Clarke.
Farrar served as editor of The American Journal of Psychiatry from 1931 to 1965.
Views and Contributions
Farrar was a noted critic of the Emmanuel Movement, a form of early psychotherapy. He was a member of the Eugenics Society of Canada and, believing heredity was the primary cause of mental illness, supported some arguments regarding compulsory sterilization of "mental deficients."
He also published work on anomalistic psychology, arguing that there was no evidence for the claims of Spiritualism and that mediumship phenomena could be explained by delusion, fantasy, and fraud.
Honors and Recognition
Farrar received honorary doctorates from McGill University and the University of Toronto, the Medal of Service of the Order of Canada from the Governor General of Canada, and the Distinguished Service Award of the Thomas W. Salmon Committee on Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Archives
Archives related to Farrar are held at the Osler Library of History of Medicine at McGill University and at the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services.
