Materia Medica Malaysiana

Top psychiatrist turns 75, but isn’t retiring yet

IPOH: Tan Sri Dr M. Mahadevan, the country’s foremost psychiatrist, is turning 75 today but has promised to keep on going until he “can no longer move.”

Although retired from government service since 1984, the bachelor has yet to retire from his profession.

Dr Mahadevan runs a clinic at his home in Ukay Heights, Kuala Lumpur, for a small number of patients, whom he continues to treat by appointment.

The country’s former chief psychiatrist (from 1974 to 1984) is also famous for transforming the treatment of the mentally ill – from custodial to community care.

He set up the Re-entry Association for the Emotionally Disabled in the early 1960s, which provides rehabilitation at a house in Tambun Heights here and the Perak Society for the Promotion of Mental Health in 1970, also in Tambun.

Both societies were the first institutions in the country to provide mentally ill patients with supervised occupational therapy without being locked up.

“In the old days, custodial treatment for the mentally ill was to protect the general public rather than considering the well being of the patients,” said Dr Mahadevan, who is the founder and first president of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association.

He is also the former president of the Malaysian Society for Clinical Hypnosis, a founding fellow of the Asian Chapter of International College of Psychosomatic Medicine, vice-chairman of Riding for the Disabled and Perak Turf Club committee member.

His renowned case studies include that on the state of mind of Wong Swee Chin alias Botak Chin, the notorious gangster who was hanged in the 1970s.

“Botak Chin was not mentally insane but a distorted and misguided genius,” said Dr Mahadevan, who was awarded the Corresponding Fellowship by the American Psychiatric Association on May 19, 1997.

Dr Mahadevan is also the oldest polo player in the South-East Asian region.

He and his polo team emerged champions in the “Mad Heaven Tournament” at the Royal Selangor Polo Club last weekend.

Dr Mahadevan takes pride that many of his patients have been fully cured and leading normal lives.

“I have employed two former patients to look into my personal needs and to take care of my home.

“Friends have also graciously fostered former patients to give them another chance in life,” he added.

An old boy of St John’s Institution here, Dr Mahadevan studied medicine in Mysore, India, as a Colombo Plan scholar and later specialised in psychiatry in Ireland and in the United States.

Malaysia's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was a family friend, then asked him to head Hospital Bahagia in 1967.

Dr Mahadevan's illustrious career is now the subject of a book. The biography, entitled Mad Heaven: The Biography of Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr M. Mahadevan, is written by Aneeta Sunderaraj.

Raja Muda of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah will launch the book at Carcosa Seri Negara in Kuala Lumpur today.