Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

John Biggs, Jr., Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals, Wilmington, Delaware, has been given the American Psychiatric Association's ISAAC RAY AWARD for 1954 for his notable contributions to legal problems connected with mental disorders. As recipient of the award, Judge Biggs will deliver a series of six lectures on legal aspects of psychiatry in November and December 1954 at the University of California Medical and Law Schools. The lectures will be published in book form by Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Judge Biggs, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School (1922), was appointed to the Circuit Court of Appeals by President Roosevelt in 1937. He has been Chief Judge for the Third Circuit since 1939. He is the author of two published novels, Demigods (1924) and Seven Days Whipping (1927), as well as several short stories and a play. He is also a contributor to the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. He was executor of the estate of the late famous novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald. He has served twice as Chairman of the Delaware Delegation to the Democratic Party National Convention. He is on the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States and has an honorary LL.D. degree from Lafayette College. He is a member of the Philadelphia, New York City, and American Bar Associations.

The Isaac Ray Award is given annually to a lawyer or a psychiatrist in the interest of furthering understanding between the two professions. The award is commemorative of Dr. Isaac Ray, a founder and early president of the American Psychiatric Association, whose Treatise on the Jurisprudence of Insanity (1838) was a pioneering work in this field. The winner of the award is asked to deliver from three to six lectures at a university which incorporates both medical and law schools. Judge Biggs is the third winner, Dr. Gregory Zilboorg and Dr. Winfred Overholser being the other two.