Frederick T. Melges (2 December 1935 – 29 July 1988) was an American

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

, notable for his interest in

time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

and for his pioneering work on the role of distortions of time in various psychiatric disorders.

Career

Melges led research work at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in the 1970s on

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

users. Melges and colleagues were the first to report that cannabis induced "temporal disintegration" or a disorganization of sequential thought and impaired goal-directedness. This phenomenon stems partly from impaired immediate memory. Melges and colleagues also showed that depersonalization is closely associated with the degree of temporal disintegration. This work led Melges to conclude that the disorientation in the sense of time might represent a key action of the drug from which many other effects followed. Melges went on to propose a future oriented therapy. Melges (1982, p. 35) argued that: "Many forms of mental illness are characterized by a bleak, foreshortened or fragmented future time perspective." He proposed that time distortions are prevalent in psychiatric illnesses and that they can cloud the personal future of an individual distorting their view of their future and thereby disrupting goal-directed behavior. Melges's emphasis on the importance of the future in understanding mental illness provided a framework for focusing psychiatric treatment on time and the future. The most significant work to document his findings on the essential value of time and his ideas on future oriented therapy are found in his only book, ''Time and the Inner Future'' (1982). Melges suffered from Type I

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

and at times wondered whether he would live to see his life's work completed. In his book's epilogue, Melges explains:

While I was writing this book, my own future was under almost constant threat. The specter of death made time ever so precious. Since I had been conducting studies on time and the mind for 18 years, and since I had come to realize the importance of time and the personal future in clinical work with my patients, I had a great desire to complete this book before I died. The year that I started the first draft was the very year that the long-term complications of my juvenile diabetes began to take their greatest toll. (p. 289)

During his battle with diabetes, Melges's kidneys failed, and required a transplant, which at the age of 43 was donated to him by his mother. Melges died years later, in 1988.

Notes

Selected bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Melges, Frederick 1935 births 1988 deaths American psychiatrists Cannabis researchers 20th-century American physicians Stanford University School of Medicine faculty

Career

See also

Notes

Selected bibliography