Biography
Robert Pos was born the youngest of three children in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His mother was a psychiatric nurse prior to her marriage in 1919 to his father, a banker and stockbroker at the then Incasso Bank.
Pos got his M.D. at the University of Amsterdam in 1951 and after various internships became qualified to practice medicine in the Netherlands in 1954.
That same year he was invited by Dr. Aldwyn Stokes, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, to come to Toronto. Following a junior internship at the Toronto General Hospital, he specialized in psychiatry and obtained his qualification in 1958. In charge of the male maximum security service at the overcrowded mental hospital at Queen Street, he introduced a multidisciplinary therapeutic team and patient counsels and led the way to opening the hospital to the community in close association with the Jewish Vocational Service which was in its first year.
In 1962 he joined the Toronto General Hospital as staff psychiatrist and soon became involved in research of narco-analysis and LSD-25 in long-term exploratory psychotherapy. His long-time interest in the relationship of physiological and psychological languages led to a Visiting Lectureship in Department of Psychiatry, University of Utrecht, and then to his Ph.D. under Dr. H. C. Rümke, Professor of Psychiatry, in 1963.
Next he developed the Informational Underload Theory of Psychotic Decompensation for which Dean J. McCreary, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, awarded him the National Research Award 1964 of the Canadian Mental Health Association. This enabled him to develop a neurophysiological research laboratory in the Banting Institute, first under the neurosurgeon Dr. Ronald Tasker, then on his own. In 1966 Pos attended the Psychiatric Research Institute of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Medicine in Moscow, as Visiting Scientist. In 1967 he became Assistant Professor and in 1968 Associate Professor.
As Chairman of the General Hospital Committee in the Faculty of Medicine Pos played a leading role in the Toronto teaching hospitals in transforming their Divisions of Psychiatry within the Departments of Medicine to independent General Hospital Departments. In 1968 he indeed became the Toronto General Hospital’s first Psychiatrist-in-Chief. As such he developed a staff of eleven full-time psychiatrists with an inpatient, outpatient, emergency, and community service, a research division and a division of psychology.
In 1973 he became Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto which he remained until 1982. In 1975-1976, he took his sabbatical year at his farm north of Owen Sound, working as Editor-in-Chief and later as Chairman of the Editorial Board on a undergraduate psychiatric textbook which was published in 1980.
In 1984 the Ontario Government transferred the MacKinnon Phillips Mental Hospital in Owen Sound, Ontario, to the General & Marine Hospital there in the expectation to empty the mental hospital and turn it into a general hospital unit. Pos became Director & Chief of Psychiatry, soon developed a psychiatric staff of nine, including a child psychiatrist and an adolescent psychiatrist, and set up a community service which eventually emptied the mental hospital. In due course he also assisted the Board of Trustees in sorting out the combined budget of the two merging hospitals.
In 1982, Pos moved to Vancouver and joined the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission of British Columbia. Soon he became Chairman of the Task Force on Reorganization. In 1983 he became both Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Port Coquitlam, BC, and Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. He increased the Institute’s staff considerably and modeled its functioning along academic lines. In 1984 he became Director of the entire Adult Clinical Services of the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission in British Columbia.
Meanwhile, Pos became involved in 16 dangerous offenders hearings leading to indeterminate sentences (including the first violent and the first sexual dangerous offender hearings in Newfoundland), 11 insanity defenses, 5 automatism defenses, and 16 other psychiatric defenses in well known criminal cases. He also participated in numerous remand and fitness hearings and was nominated or consulted in 7 school districts under the School Act of British Columbia.
Because of policy differences between Pos on the one hand, and the leadership of the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission and the Department of Health of British Columbia on the other, he was forced to leave the Forensic Service in 1987 and started a private practice in Vancouver with emphasis on long-term reconstructive therapy. He functioned also as Psychiatric Consultant at the Vancouver Pretrial Service Centre of B.C. Corrections for some time.
While working for the Forensic Service Pos had become aware of and fascinated by the two distinct, unique ways in which forensically involved persons experience time. Early in private practice he realized, however, that this time gender duality was present in all people. He began his research in this area in earnest in the summer of 1988.
After he retired from clinical practice in September 1997 he and his spouse, Marie Becker-Pos, artist and counseling psychologist, moved back and forth between Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia. He completed his manuscript of The Gender Beyond Sex in July 2003.
Publication:
Pos, Robert (2004): The Gender beyond Sex: Two distinct ways of living in time;(presently available as e-book on line).
Pos, Robert (1990): Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (A.D.H.D.): A Review; Department of Psychiatry Library, University of British Columbia.
Pos, Robert., E.M. Coles, F.E. Grant and J.Schellenberg, (1987): Dangerous Offenders Hearings in British Columbia (1977 – 1986): a Review; Vancouver, B.C.: The Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission of British Columbia.
Coles, E.M. and Pos, Robert (1986): “Assessment of fitness to stand trial: a critique of Menzies et al.’s (1984)”; Medicine and Law International Journ. :5 (6): 489-498
Coles, E.M. and Pos, Robert (1985): “The assessment of fitness to stand trial: the need for a profile rather than a scale.” Psychological Reports, 57, 1051-1054.
Pos, Robert (1985): “The Adult Forensic Psychiatric Service in British Columbia;” in: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Conference of Lieutenant-Governors’ Advisory Boards of Review (N. McDiarmid, Ed.), September 30, October 1, Victoria, B.C.
Rakoff, V. M., Pos, R.obert, and Greben, Stantey. (1985): “The Patient and the Physician;” Chapter 30 in: A Method of Psychiatry (Greben, S.E., Rakoff, V.M., Voineskos, G., Eds), Second Edition, Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia: 333 – 339.
Greben, S., Pos, Robert (Editor-in-Chief), Rakoff, V., Bonkalo, A., Lowy, F. H.,Voineskos, G. (Editors)(1980): A Method of Psychiatry, Lea & Febiger, 1980, Philadelphia.
Rakoff, Vivian, Pos, Robert. and Greben, Stanley.(1980): “The Patient and the Physician;”Chapter 1 in : A Method of Psychiatry (Greben, S., Pos, R. et al., Eds), Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia,:1 – 8.
Pos, Robert (1980): “Pain”: Chapter 19 in: A Method of Psychiatry, ibidem, 157 – 162.
Pos, Robert (1980): “Sleepdisorders”, Chapter 20 in: A Method of Psychiatry, ibidem, 163 – 170.
Lowy, F.H. and Pos, Robert (1980): “Treatment: Psychotherapy and Behavior Therapy.” Chapter 33 in: A Method of Psychiatry, ibidem, 289 – 296;
Pos, Robert (1975): “The Old and the New at the Queen Street Medical Centre” In: Howard Building Renovation Feasibility Study (A. J. Diamond, Ed.), Ontario Heritage Foundation, November, 18 – 22.
Pos, Robert et al. (1975): “D. Campbell Meyers, Pioneer of General Hospital Psychiatry,” Canad. Psychiatr. Ass. J., 20, 5, 393-403, Aug.
Pos, Robert (1974): “Psychiatric Assessment of Pain,” Canad.Med.Ass.J., 3, 1213 – 1215, Dec.7.
Pos, Robert (1973): “A Physician’s Reaction to the Clinical Nurse Specialist“ in: Proceedings of the Conference on the Clinical Nurse Specialist; Faculties of Medicine and Nursing, June 4 – 5, University of Toronto Press.
Pos, Robert, et al.(1971): The Law and Medicine, Recording; Hoffman – La Roche of Canada.
Pos, Robert and Brawley, P. (1970): Recent Trends in Canadian Psychiatry, Korasakow J. Neuropathol. Neuropsychiatr. (USSR), 69, 6, 936 – 940, June.
Pos, Robert (1969): The Informational Underload Theory of States Characterized by the Freudian Primary Process (Psychotic Decompensation, Primary Process Dreaming and the Earliest Phase of Life): a Multi-disciplinary Research Effort Using Neurophysiological Data of Experimental Animals (Cats) and Human Subjects with the Application of Mathematical Pattern Extraction Techniques Realized through Digital Computers; A Report to the Ontario Mental Health Foundation over the period April 1965 – May, 1969.
Pos, Robert(1969):The Informational Underload Theory of States Characterized by the Freudian Primary Process (Psychotic Decompensation, Primary Process Dreaming and the Earliest Phase of Life): A Multi-disciplinary Research Effort Using Neurophysiological Data of Experimental Animals (Cats) and Human Subjects with the Application of Mathematical Pattern Extraction Techniques Realized Through Digital Computers: A Summary and a Survey of the First Four and a Half Years of Research. A Monograph; Department of Psychiatry, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1969): “The Biology of Dreaming and the Informational Underload Hypothesis of Psychotic Phenomena;”Canad. Psychiatr. Ass.J., 14, 371 – 385.
Pos, Robert (Editor) (1969): The Central Core Lectures, Period III; Period III Psyche System Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1968): “The Biology of Dreaming” (E. Hartmann: Book Review; Canad.Psychiatr.Ass.J., 13, 6, 579 – 581.
Monakhov, K. (1968): “The Pavlovian Theory in Psychiatry: Some Recent Developments”; Chapter in :Modern Perspectives in World Psychiatry (J. Howells, Ed.), Oliver A. Boyd, Edinborough, (Dr. Pos acknowledged in this Chapter for his aid in writing same while in Moscow, U.S.S.R.).
Pos, Robert (1968): “LSD in Psychotherapy” Chapter in: Current Psychiatric Therapies (J. H. Masserman, Ed.), vol. 8, 115 – 120; Gruene & Stratton, New York, London.
Pos, Robert (1967): “Physiological Research in Sensory Deprivation, “ Korsakov J. Neuropathol. Neuropsychiatr. (USSR), 7, 3, 395 – 401.
Pos, Robert, et al. (1967): “Research into the Informational Underload (Sensory Deprivation ) Hypothesis of Mental Illness” Canad.Psychiatr.Ass.J., 12, 135 – 145.
Pos, Robert (1967): “The Psyche-Soma Complex: An Exercise in Symbolic Logic,” Canad. Psychiatr. Ass. J., 12, 125 – 133.
Brawley, P., and Pos, Robert (1967): “The Informational Underload (Sensory Deprivation) Model in Contemporary Psychiatry; “Canad.Psychiatr.Ass.J., 12, 105 – 124.
Pos, Robert (1967): Report on Research into the Informational Underload Hypothesis of Psychotic Illness; Secretary General, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Paris, France.
Pos, Robert (1967): “Social Relationships”; Section in: Breakthrough; Centennial Project; record, Anglican and United Churches of Canada.
Pos, Robert, et al.(1966) : Research report of Seven Years, 1959 – 1965; National Mental Health Research Fund, Canadian Mental Health Association, Spring.
Pos, Robert (1966): “LSD-25 as an Adjunct to Long-Term Psychotherapy;” Can.Psychiatr.Ass.J., 11, 4, August.
Abstracted in: Psychological Abstracts,40,11, Nov. 1966;
Modern Medicine(USA), Dec. 19, 1966;
Modern Medicine(Canada), April 1967.
Pos, Robert (1965): “The Sensory Underload Syndrome – A Hypothesi” Canada’s Mental Health, July-August, XIII,4.
Pos, Robert, Laxer, R.M., Tasker, R.R.(1963): Sensory Underload Syndrome: A Model for clinical and Experimental Psychoses; Neuro-psychiatric Research Group, Toronto General Hospital, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1963): The Psyche-Soma Complex: Its Psychology and Logic; Ph.D. thesis; Lankhout & Immig N.V. and University of Utrecht, The Hague.
Academic lectures:
Pos, Robert (1993): Adult Form of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Workshop, Continuing Education, Burnaby Psychiatric Services, Vancouver, B.C. Nopvember 19, 1993.
Robert Pos (1992): History at the Toronto General Hospital. Paper given at History of Canadian Psychiatry Research in Progress Seminar, Archives, Queen Street Mental Health Centre & Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, May 1, 1992.
Pos, Robert (1991): Residual Attention Deficit Disorder – Adults: Grand Rounds, Vancouver General Hospital, British Columbia’s Health Sciences Centre, University of British Columbia, June 25, 1991.
Pos, Robert with E. Michael Coles and Faye Grant (1987): Dangerous Offender Hearings in British Columbia: A preliminary report of a review of the first twenty-one cases under the 1977 legislation; Guest speaker, British Columbia Bar Association, Criminal Justice Subsection, Vancouver. October 21, 1987.
Pos, Robert with Robert Gillen, Crown counsel (1987) : Dangerous Sexual Offenders – a 1980s phenomenon. Fraser Valley Criminal Justice Workshop Series; October 20, 1987.
Pos, Robert (1987): Assessment & Treatment in Forensic Psychiatry : Keynote speaker, Atlantic Provinces Criminalogy and Corrections Association: 20th Annual Conference, Stephenville, Nfld., Oct 6-9, 1987; October 6, 1987.
Pos, Robert (1987): Sexual abuse: Keynote speaker, Atlantic Provinces Criminalogy and Corrections Association: 20th Annual Conference, Stephenville, Nfld., Oct 6-9, 1987; October 7, 1987.
Pos, Robert (1987): Alpha personalities: Guest lecture, Atlantic Provinces Criminalogy and Corrections Association: 20th Annual Conference, Stephenville, Nfld., Oct 6-9, 1987; October 7, 1987.
Pos, Robert, E.M. Coles, G. Tien, H. Prochnau, and B. Green (1987): Pretrial psychiatric examination in British Columbia: a review of 1193 pre-arraignment cases (Vancouver Goal) and of 1,044 psychiatric inpatient remands; American College of Forensic Psychiatry, 5th Annual Symposium, Monterey, Cal., April 22-27, 1987; April 23, 1987.
Pos, Robert, M. Becker, and E.M. Coles,(1987): The Hervey Cleckley Memorial Lecture: beyond psychopathy (the alpha personality); American College of Forensic Psychiatry, 5th Annual Symposium, Monterey, Cal., April 22-27, 1987; April 24, 1987.
Robert Pos (1986 ): Freud’s Legacy; Lecture, Symposium on Struggling with Freud’s Legacy. University of British Columbia, UBC Centre for Continuing Education, May 2-3, 1986.
Robert Pos (1971): The Neurophysiology of Schizophrenia; (by invitation); Symposium on Research Strategies in Schizophrenia, The Clarke Institute, Toronto, Ontario;
Robert Pos and P. Brawley (1970): Autospectral and Cross-Spectral Analysis of the Human Electro-encephalogram in Waking and Sleeping States; 20th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, Winnipeg, Manitoba;
Robert Pos (1969): Neurophysiological Research into the Informational Underload Theory: a Progresss Report; 19th Annual Meeting, Canadian Psychiatry Association, Toronto, Ontario;
Robert Pos (1969): Research Into the Informational Underload applied to the neurophysiology of the Freudian primary process ( psychotic states, dreaming, mental functioning of the new-born );(by invitation); NASA Symposium on Arousal, University of Burlington, Vermont, U.S.A.:
Robert Pos (1968): Psychotomimetics and Sensory Deprivation (by invitation); First International Conference of Pharmacology and Psychodysleptics, University of Laval, Quebec City.
Pos, Robert (1968): The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy (guest speaker); Symposium on Drugs and the Mind, Extension Department Mc Master University, Hamilton,Ontario.
Robert Pos (1967): The Informational Underload Theory in Psychiatry (Guestlecturer); Department of Psychiatry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario:
Robert Pos (1967): Research into the Informational Underload Model of Psychosis (Guestlecturer); Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, P.Q.:
Robert Pos (1966): The Psychiatric Research Institute, Moscow, Academy of Medical Sciences of the U.S.S.R.: A Report; Academic lecture, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario;
Robert Pos (1966): Some Aspects of Soviet Psychiatry (Guest Lecture); the Neuro-Psychiatric Institute, University of California, L.A.;
Robert Pos (1966): The Informational Underload Model in Psychiatry (Guest Lecturer); the Brain Research Institute, University of California, L.A.;
Robert Pos (1966): Physiological Research in Sensory Deprivation (Guestlecturer); J. E. Purkyne Medical Society, Psychiatric Clinic, Prague, Tsjechoslovakia, April 27;
Pos, Robert (1965): A New Approach to the Relationship Between Mind and Body (Guest lecture); the Manitoba Division, Canadian Mental Health Association;
Pos, Robert (1965): The Psyche-Soma Complex: An Exercise in Symbolic Logic; (Guest lecture); American Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, New York;
Pos, Robert (1964): The Psyche-Soma Complex (Academic lecture); Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto;
Robert Pos: (1964): Some Aspects of the Relation Between Occupation and Emotional Conflict (Guest lecture); Regional Physicians of the Imperial Oil, Canada, Ltd, Head Office, Toronto, Ontario;
Robert Pos (1962): The Functional Clinical Syndromes in Psychiatry (Post-graduate lecture); Department of Medicine, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1962): Some Remarks about the Psychological Implications of Medical Illness (Guest lecture); Psychiatrisch Universiteitskliniek, Stichting Academisch Ziekenhuis, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Robert Pos (1958): About Symbiotic Phenomena in Psychotic Children; A postgraduate’s lecture; Department of Psychoiatry, University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario.
Robert Pos (1957): The Dr. Trevor Owen Retirement Lecture: About the Practical Application of Holistic Thinking in Medicine; Department of Medicine, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario;
Robert Pos (1955): Progress in Psychiatry and Its Consequences (staff lecture); Ontario Hospital, Whibty, Ontario.
Robert Pos (1953): Pseudocyesis (Pseudopregnancy): Is een psychogenese mogelijk (Is psychogenesis possible)? (Graduate lecture); Department of Obstertrics and Gynecology, Wilhelmina Gasthuis, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Position papers and Task Force reports:
Pos, Robert (1988): Psychiatric expert opinion: some ethical dilemmas: a summary position paper; Regina versus Narcisse Douglas Baptiste; Provincial Court of British Columbia (Department of Psychiatry Library, University of British Columbia).
Pos, Robert (1986): Pedophilia: Position Paper for the British Columbia Medical Association; October 23, 1986.
Pos, Robert (1984): Organization and Structure of the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission: Report and Proposals; Executive Director’s Task Force; Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission of British Columbia.
Pos, Robert (1983): Requirements for the Number of Psychiatrists and Non-psychiatric Physicians at the Forensic Psychiatric Institute of British Columbia; Position Paper; Forensic Psychiatric Institute, Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission of British Columbia.
Pos, Robert (1982): Report on Re-organization; Executive Direcotor’s Task Force on Re-organization; Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission of British Columbia.
Pos, Robert (1980): The Budget of the Owen Sound General & Marine Hospital and the Previous Mackinnon Phillips Hospital, Owen Sound, Ontario: an Analysis of Five Years; Task Force, Board of Trustees, General & Marine Hospital, Owen Sound, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1976): The Undergraduate Textbook of Psychiatry (Psychiatric Textbook for the Physician); Editor-in-Chief’s Report to the Professor & Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1974): Interdisciplinary Task Force of Behavioural Sciences and Allied Groups; Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1973): Executive Director’s Task Force on the Queen Street Mental Health Centre Catchment Area Planning; Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1972): Evaluation report, Youthworker Project, Toronto General Hospital; Medical Advisory Board, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert(1972): The Requirements for a Psychiatric Facility at the Toronto General Hospital; Joint Conference Committee, Board of Trustees, Toronto General Hospital., Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1968): The Toronto General Hospital, Department of Psychiatry: a Five-Year Projection, Interdepartment Planning and Coordinating Committee, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1973): Psychiatry at the Toronto General Hospital: 1960 – 1973, A Tentative Review; Report to the Selection Committee, Professor & Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario.
Pos, Robert (1969): Psychiatry at the Toronto General Hospital, Planning Report; Independent Planning Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.
Pos, Robert(1969): Pre-Certification Appointments; Task Force Report, Psychiatric Planning Committee, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
Pos, Robert(1969): Amendments to the Draft University of Toronto Act as recommended by the Commission on the Government of the University of Toronto; Task Force, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
Pos, Robert (1967): The Role and Position of Psychiatry within the General Hospitals Affiliated with the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine: Some General Principles; General Hospitals Committee, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.
