title: [Professor Juozas Blazys--psychiatrist, academic and public figure].
abstract: Juozas Blazys (1890-1939)--the first chief of the Department of Nerve and Psychiatric Illnesses and Vice Rector of Lithuanian Vytautas Magnus University in the interwar period. In 2004 we commemorated the 65th anniversary of his death. He was a highly prominent personality of enormous erudition and productive scientist. He wrote a coursebook "Introduction to psychiatry", monograph-study "Tolerance, as a basis of culture", published around 100 articles in "Medicina" and various journals of that period. His ideas about psychiatry are relevant nowadays too. Professor was interested in the causes of psychosis origin, analyzed alcoholic, somatogenic psychosis, was interested and working in the fields of forensic psychiatry, military expertise, heredity and is contradictory evaluated in the field of eugenics till now. Juozas Blazys was born in Siauliai. In 1914 he graduated Petersburg Academy of Military Medicine, worked at the various hospitals of Russian military. In 1918 he returned to Lithuania and started to work at the psychiatric hospital in Taurage at first as a chief of department, and later as director, at the same time working as a physician of Taurage district. In 1920-1921 Juozas Blazys lectured the course of psychiatry at Higher Courses of Study in Kaunas. In 1924, after the establishment of the University of Kaunas, he was elected as a chief of the department of Nerve and Psychiatric Illnesses. In 1935 he was granted the degree of professor, in 1938--appointed as Vice Rector of Vytautas Magnus University. He had been developing educative activities: wrote articles on psycho hygiene, negative impact of alcohol, smoking and prostitution on heredity, cared about the improvement of Lithuanian genotype.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Clinic, Vilnius University, Vasaros 5, Vilnius 10309, Lithuania. algirdas.dembinskas_psichiatri@delfi.lt
authors.forename: Algirdas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dembinskas
authors.forename: Valdone
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Matoniene
mesh_terms: D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008097:Lithuania; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*