Social psychiatry

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"Social psychiatry is concerned with the relationships between mental disorder and sociocultural processes" --Alexander Leighton, 1960

Social psychiatry seeks to explore the social, environmental and cultural factors in the aetiology and outcomes of psychiatric disorders as it affects both individuals and society. Social psychiatry provides a link with social anthropology, cultural psychiatry, sociology and other disciplines in the field of mental health.

While the roots of social psychiatry go back even further, some of the important early landmarks in the field included: Karen Horney, M.D., who wrote about personality as it interacts with other people (1937); Erik Erikson, who discussed the influence of society on development (1950); Cornell University's Midtown Manhattan Study, which looked at the prevalence of mental illness in Manhattan; August Hollingshead, Ph.D., and Fredrick Redlich, M.D., looked at the influence of social class on psychiatric conditions (1958); Alexander Leighton, M.D., looked at the relationship between social disintegration and mental illness (1959). Burrow (26) was an early pioneer of the social causes of mental disorder and suggested `Sociatry` as the name for this new discipline. Over the years many Sociologists have contributed theories and research which has enlightened psychiatry in this area. (see the work of Avison and Robins etc) These studies by sociologists (and further inter-displinary research) are now back in the acsendant because of the failure of narrow, individual approaches. The Midtown Manhattan Study conducted in the 1950's by Cornell University hinted at widespread psychopathology among the general population of New York City (Srole, Sanger, Michael, Opler, and Rennie, 1962).

One of the seminal studies in comparative social psychiatry was accomplished by a researcher at Lucknow University, India (1960-1963; Mohan 1973).This study has been cited in various international journal.

[edit] References

S Moffic (1998) Social Psychiatry, Managed Care and the New Millennium. Psychiatric Times. December 1998 Vol. XV Issue 12
L. Srole, T. Sanger, S. Michael, M.K. Opler, and T.A.C. Rennie, Mental Health in the Metropolis: The Midtown Manhattan Study, McGraw, 1962