He was born Charles August Hoch (and would sign legal documents with his full name) in
Basel, Switzerland, the son of a minister, who was also director of the
Basel University Hospital. Arriving in Baltimore on the passenger shoip "Rhein" on 3 August 1886 at the age of 19, he emigrated to the United States to pursue his medical education. He spent two years at the medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania, where he was influenced by Dr.
William Osler. When, in 1889, Osler moved to
Johns Hopkins University Hospital in
Baltimore, Maryland, Hoch followed to work at the Johns Hopkins
outpatient neurological clinic and to pursue medical training at the
University of Maryland. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Maryland in 1890. He remained an assistant to Osler in the clinic. In October 1893, Hoch assumed a position at the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts, near
Boston, Massachusetts, to develop the
pathological and
psychological laboratories and the
clinical psychiatric programs. Before assuming his position at McLean, McLean's director Edward Cowles sent him to
Europe for most of 1893 and 1894 study in several European laboratories, including those of
Friedrich von Recklinghausen, a
pathologist at the
University of Strasbourg;
Wilhelm Wundt, a
psychologist at the
University of Leipzig; and
Emil Kraepelin, a
psychiatrist at the
University of Heidelberg. He would return to European laboratories and Kraepelin's clinic in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1897. In July 1894 he married Emmy Muench (22 January 1862 – 27 August 1941) of Basel, Switzerland, during his European trip. Hoch returned to America with his new bride on the "Veendam" passenger ship, arriving in New York City on 12 November 1894. In May 1895, while working at the newly named McLean Hospital, now on a new campus in Waverly (Belmont), Massachusetts, the Hoch's only child Susan (Susie) Hoch (21 May 1895 – 8 March 1980) was born. In Queens, New York City, on 3 July 1921 Susan married
Lawrence S. Kubie (1896–1973), who would go on to become a noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. They produced two children and divorced in 1935. Susan would go on to study psychoanalysis in Europe, was a lifelong acquaintance of
Anna Freud, and in 1943 helped found the William Hodson Community Center in the Bronx which was the first experimental psychiatric center for the elderly. She co-authored a book with Gertrude Landrau that would be influential in inspiring the creation of geriatric centers in the US. Hoch formally left McLean Hospital on 23 June 1905. On 1 July 1905, Hoch began a new position at the
Bloomingdale Hospital in
White Plains, New York as its first assistant physician and special clinician. It was there that he became interested in
psychoanalysis, which he believed would illuminate the field of human conduct. In 1908 he spent time in Zurich at the Burgholzli Mental Hospital with its director,
Eugen Bleuler, and second-in-command
Carl Gustav Jung where he deepened his knowledge of psychoanalysis, was trained in the use of the word association experiment, and became familiar with a new disease concept – schizophrenia – which Bleuler had first proposed in a publication that year. After four years at Bloomingdale, in July 1909 he was offered the directorship of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, following Dr.
Adolf Meyer (psychiatrist) who was moving to the Johns Hopkins University. A major objective was to use the New York State Psychiatric Institute's services as an educational locus for physicians working in the
state hospitals. While at Bloomingdale, in 1909 Hoch put in his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, and it was granted in August 1911 when he resided in New York. Hoch was actively involved in psychiatric organizations. He was president of the
New York Psychiatric Society in 1908 and in 1909; president of the
American Psychopathological Society in 1913; and president of the
American Psychoanalytic Association in 1913 and in 1914. He was a member of the
American Neurological Society, the
American Medico-Psychological Society (now the
American Psychiatric Association), and the
New York Neurological Society. He was a leader in planning a scientific psychiatric journal by the Institute titled
Psychiatric Bulletin. == Legacy ==