Mixing with Medics:
Interacting with Mental Health
Professionals on their Turf
Matthew Smith
Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare
University of Strathclyde
Why Study the History
of Medicine and
Health?
Pierre Berton (1920-2004)
Too popular for his own good?
Message from the President on Mental
Illness and Mental Retardation
John F. Kennedy (1963)
-‘Infectious epidemics are now largely under control. Most of the major
diseases of the body are beginning to give ground in man's increasing
struggle to find their cause and cure. But the public understanding,
treatment and prevention of mental disabilities have not made
comparable progress since the earliest days of modern history.’
- ‘…we must seek out the causes of mental illness and of mental
retardation and eradicate them. Here, more than in any other area, ‘an
ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.’ For prevention
is far more desirable for all concerned. It is far more economical and it is
far more likely to be successful. Prevention will require both selected
specific programs directed especially at known causes, and the general
strengthening of our fundamental community, social welfare, and
educational programs which can do much to eliminate or correct the
harsh environmental conditions which often are associated with mental
retardation and mental illness.’
Research on Social Determinants
of Mental Health
Robert E. L. Faris and H. Warren
Dunham: Mental Health in Urban
Areas (1939) – Chicago
August B. Hollingshead and
Frederick C. Redlich: Social Class
and Mental Illness (1958) – New
Haven, CT
August B.
Hollingshead
Frederick C.
Redlich
Research on Social Determinants of
Mental Health, continued…
Alexander Leighton: Stirling
County Studies (1959-1963) –
Nova Scotia
Jane Murphy and
Alexander Leighton
Leo Srole et al: Mental
Health in the Metropolis
(1962) - Manhattan
When Theory Meets Politics
- Ultimately, social psychiatric theories demanded political
action.
- Unwillingness of rival psychiatric disciplines to
compromise – professional politics and the prestige of
psychiatry.
- Many “new” mental illnesses (depression, hyperactivity,
etc…) were prevalent in affluent areas.
- Social psychiatry split into cross-cultural psychiatry,
community psychiatry and preventive psychiatry.
- Finally, were mental health workers willing and able to
become political actors? Were they willing and able to
change society? Are they now?
Chicago
David Satcher
16th Surgeon General of the United States,
1998-2002
The Drake Hotel
South-Side Chicago
Acknowledgements
Wellcome Trust
SDMH Organisers
Ed Ramsden