Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

All days
Go back

Friday 14 April 2023 08.30 - 10.30
R-9 HEA09 The History of Psychiatric Epidemiology
E45
Network: Health and Environment Chairs: -
Organizer: Matthew Smith Discussants: -
Emmanuel Delille : Ecological Framework and Mental Health: the Case of the Stirling County Study in Psychiatric Epidemiology
Psychiatric epidemiology emerged after the Second World War at the boundary between different kinds of knowledge like psychiatry, psychology, sociology and social anthropology. The Stirling County Study (Nova Scotia) provides a good example of how epidemiology of mental disorders found methodological skills in very varied sciences, especially social sciences. On ... (Show more)
Psychiatric epidemiology emerged after the Second World War at the boundary between different kinds of knowledge like psychiatry, psychology, sociology and social anthropology. The Stirling County Study (Nova Scotia) provides a good example of how epidemiology of mental disorders found methodological skills in very varied sciences, especially social sciences. On one hand, this paper aims to reconstruct one of the first episodes of the academic development of psychiatric epidemiology, and on the other hand, aims to give a description of interdisciplinarity at work. After recalling the training in social anthropology of the leaders of the study and the ecological framework that inspired the research design of the survey, this paper will explain some of the major features of the Stirling County Study, community based, and using scientific artefacts like questionnaires and photography. (Show less)

Matthew Smith : Psychiatric Epidemiology in the Big Apple: Social Psychiatry and the Midtown Manhattan Study, 1950-1962
In the spring of 1962, a series of alarming headlines greeted American newspaper readers. From “New York Living for Nuts Only” and “One in Five Here Mentally Fit” to “Scratch a New Yorker, and What Do You Find?” and “City Gets Mental Test, Results are Real Crazy,” the stories highlighted ... (Show more)
In the spring of 1962, a series of alarming headlines greeted American newspaper readers. From “New York Living for Nuts Only” and “One in Five Here Mentally Fit” to “Scratch a New Yorker, and What Do You Find?” and “City Gets Mental Test, Results are Real Crazy,” the stories highlighted the shocking and, to some, incredible statistics that fewer than one in five (18.5%) Manhattanites had good mental health. Approximately a quarter of them had such bad mental health that they were effectively incapacitated, often unable to work or function socially.
The headlines were gleaned from Mental Health in the Metropolis (1962), the first major output of the Midtown Manhattan Study, a large-scale, interdisciplinary project that surveyed the mental health of 1660 white Upper East Side residents between the ages of 20 and 59. One of the most significant social psychiatry projects to emerge following the Second World War, the Midtown Manhattan Study endeavoured to “test the general hypothesis that biosocial and sociocultural factors leave imprints on mental health which are discernible when viewed from the panoramic perspective provided by a large population.” Despite initial media and academic interest, however, the Midtown Manhattan Study’s findings were soon forgotten, as American psychiatry turned its focus to individual – rather than population – psychopathology, and turned to the brain – rather than the environment – for explanations. Relying on archival sources, contemporary medical and social scientific literature, and oral history interviews, this article explains why the Midtown Manhattan Study failed to become more influential, concluding that its emphasis on the role of social isolation and poverty in mental illness should be taken more seriously today. (Show less)



Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer