American Psychiatrist, Professor and Author. Spitzer was a psychiatrist who played a leading role in establishing agreed-upon standards to describe mental disorders and eliminating homosexuality’s designation as a pathology. His work on several editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which defines all of the major disorders, became best-sellers. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cornell University in 1953 and an M.D. in 1957 from New York University School of Medicine. He completed a psychiatric residence at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in 1961, and in 1966, he graduated from Columbia University’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Spitzer came up with agreed-upon definitions of mental disorders by convening meetings of experts in each diagnostic category and taking notes on their observations. He is credited with removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the DSM in 1973. He spent most of his career at Columbia University and was on the research faculty of their Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. From 1980 to 2001, he won many of the field’s most prestigious awards, including one for patient care and one for teaching, and received the Thomas William Salmon Medal from the New York Academy of Medicine for his contributions to psychiatry. Spitzer, who has been called one of the most influential psychiatrists of the 20th century, died from complications of heart disease at an assisted living facility. (bio by: Louis M.)