Google honoured Dr. Herbert David Kleber, who pioneered addiction psychology, with a doodle today to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of his election as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine.
Google Doodle Honours Dr. Herbert Kleber
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 19, 1934, Dr. Herbert is known for his pioneering work on addiction and substance abuse treatment. Dr. Herbert, a renowned American psychiatrist, and substance abuse researcher, passed away last year.
Dr. Herbert attended Dartmouth College, where he studied pre-med and discovered his passion for psychology. However, his life’s mission began only after he was assigned to the Public Health Service Prison Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1946 after completing his psychiatric residency at Yale University.
The American psychiatrist never viewed addiction as a moral failure, unlike his contemporaries. Rather, he believed addiction to be a condition that could only be treated through research, medication, and therapy. He called his method evidence-based treatment that relied on research and science to change the path of addiction.
Dr. Herbert Kleber Who Pioneered in Treating Drug Addiction
He treated addiction as a medical condition as opposed to moral failure and instead of shaming his patients he stressed on the importance of research and treatment based on medicines and therapy. This helped his patients to recover without relapsing.
His work was recognised by former US President George H W Bush. He was appointed as the Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Dr. Herbert also co-founded the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse and established the Division on Substance Abuse at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. On October 01 in 1996, Dr. Herbert was elected to be a member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science.
