Dr. James Kocsis is professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic

Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic

At his death in 1927, Payne Whitney bestowed the funds to build and endow the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic on the Upper East Side of Manhattan...

. His clinical research trials focused on the treatment of chronic depression

Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

, initially with antidepressant medications and, more recently, with psychotherapy. These studies were pivotal in the reconceptualization of depressive neurosis, a personality disorder

Personality disorder

Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors. Personality disorders are noted on Axis II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-IV-TR of the American Psychiatric Association.Personality disorders are...

, into dysthymia, a variant of major depression.

Dr. Kocsis graduated from Amherst

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 and Cornell Medical College.