Dr. Paul Hoch and Dr. James Cattell exposed unwitting patients to high dose psychedelic drug experiments whose foreseeable risks of brain damage, mental incapacity and death were known. Their maltreatment caused Henry Blauer’s death. Within two years Hoch was appointed Commissioner of Mental Hygiene of NYS (1955) overseeing 28 hospitals and 100,000 patients.
Hoch had led an effort to destroy the career of psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, MD who criticized the psychiatric profession for its coercive involuntary interventions. Dr. Szasz is one of the heroes on AHRP’s Honor Roll * Paul Hoch died suddenly of a heart attack at age 62; he was eulogized by the equally monstrous psychiatrist, Dr. Ewen Cameron and by Nelson Rockefeller. Mainstream psychiatry continues to be lauded Hoch as:
one of the most respected and honored psychiatrists of his generation. . . The impact of Paul Hoch’s research in psychopharmacology cannot be overestimated. . . a pioneer in the investigation of new psychotropic agents. He was fascinated by hallucinogens, at first believing they might hold a key to the causes of schizophrenia through their induction of a “model psychosis.
A bronze plaque and bust prominently displayed in the lobby of NYS Psychiatric Institute states: “Compassionate physician, inspiring teacher, original researcher, dedicated to scientist, dynamic administrator.” (Sidney Malitz, MD. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1996)