Beginning in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association has issued this award in honor of Dr. Isaac Ray, one of the founding fathers of the APA and the first American author in the field of legal problems connected with mental disorders.

Isaac Ray is widely regarded as the foremost forensic psychiatrist of his time. In 1838, he published A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity (Boston), which served as an authoritative text for many years. Ray received his medical degree in 1827 from Harvard and spent the following year visiting medical facilities in New England, England, and France. After several years in private practice in Maine, he became Superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane in Augusta in 1841. In 1845 he moved to Providence, RI, to supervise the building of Butler Hospital and became its first Superintendent. In 1867, he moved to an active retirement in Philadelphia.

His Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity was very influential and served as a key component in the precendent-setting trial of Daniel M'Naghten in England in 1843. At the trial, defense attorney Sir Alexander Cockburn quoted extensively from the book which rejected traditional views of the insanity defense based on the defendant's ability to distinguish "right from wrong" in favour of a broader approach based on causation.

One of the founding members of the "Superintendents' Association," the forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association, he served as President from 1855 to 1859. Between 1828 and 1880, except for one year he published at least one article every year, mainly dealing with insanity and its legal implications. Ray also published several important monographs, including Mental Hygiene (Boston, 1863) and Contributions to Mental Pathology (Boston, 1873).

The Award is "given annually to some person of outstanding accomplishment in psychiatry and jurisprudence."