James Vance May

Born in 1873, James Vance May was an American psychiatrist whose writing helped frame mental illness as more than an individual medical concern. He became known as an early advocate for studying mental diseases through statistics and classification, aiming to bring more structure and public understanding to the field.

May is especially remembered for treating mental disease as a public health problem, a perspective that was ahead of its time. That idea later became far more widely accepted, but his work stands out for making the case early and clearly.

He died in 1947. Although he is not a widely known public figure today, his contributions are still noted in discussions of the history of psychiatry and public mental health.