6 FARRERAS
Robert H. Felix, M.D.
Courtesy of the National Library
of MedicineAdvisory Council. The Neuropsychiatric Institute would conduct, as
well as help fund, research on the etiology, prevention, diagnosis, and
treatment of mental illness. The program would also fund the training
of mental health professionals through individual fellowships, institu
tional grants, and state aid. Finally, the bill would help expand existing
community mental health services and establish additional clinics and
treatment centers.^23 These goals raised a number of concerns, ranging
from criticisms and fears of legislating socialized medicine to those of
overburdening the federal budget and of federal interference with state
social welfare programs.^24
President Harry S. Truman signed the bill, Public Law 79-487,^25
on July 3, 1946, but the bill’s name was changed from the National
Neuropsychiatric Institute Act to the National Mental Health Act.^26
The new name had been a matter of contention. Following World War
II, mental, rather than neurological, problems were at the forefront of
the nation’s attention. The psychiatric establishment, because of its
prevalent psychoanalytic emphasis, leaned toward mental health rather
than neurology. Thomas Parran, the Surgeon General, leaned strongly
toward the label of neuropsychiatry due to its scientific connotations.
The powerful American Medical Association, however, opposed what
it saw as a first step toward socialized medicine.^27 Winfred Overholser,
the Superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital, who unsuccessfully push
ed for the institute to be a part of St. Elizabeths, believed the proposed
term, neuropsychiatric, was too narrow. Karl Bowman, president of the