Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Psychiatry, Culture, and Society- (NC) (NPF)*

PREREQUISITES AND PLACEMENT IN THE CURRICULUM: None

Narrative Description:

This elective will introduce trainees to key themes in the history of psychiatry and the social provision of care for mentally ill individuals in the United States. In addition to gaining an understanding of the origins of contemporary psychiatric thought and practice, trainees will develop critical reasoning skills with respect to the complex social and culture phenomena that structure psychiatric care. Trainees will meet daily in a seminar format with the preceptor and their peers to discuss a selection of articles, book selections, and visual media. Each day, trainees will present the main argument of one of the assigned readings to their peers as well as raising critical questions for discussion. They will be expected to engage in discussions of all of the assigned readings with a degree of rigor comparable to that of a graduate seminar in the humanities or social sciences. Because of the intensity of the assigned readings, as well as the small size and brevity of the seminar, no formal examination or final paper will be required. Trainees’ performance will be assessed through their engagement with the material in these discussions as well as iteratively over the course of the seminar.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Identify the origins of the US psychiatric profession and articulate the relevance of its association with institutional care for mentally ill individuals.
  2. Contextualize the current biomedical understanding of mental illness within the long history of biological approaches to insanity. Discuss the relevant benefits and risks of such an approach.
  3. Identify the major critiques of psychiatry that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century. Assess the relative merits and weaknesses of these critiques.
  4. Identify keys ways in which power distinctions and social hierarchy have shaped psychiatric thought and practice (e.g. diagnostic patterns, optimal treatment modality, presumed prognosis) along the lines of race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and social class.

INSTRUCTIONAL FEATURES:

Description of Learning Activities

Daily seminar-based discussion held via Zoom.

Daily Responsibilities:

Students will have daily seminars to attend. They will be responsible for reading the assigned material and preparing for the following day’s seminar.

Required Reading/ Educational Resources:  

  1. INTRODUCTION
    1. Ian Hacking, “Taking Bad Arguments Seriously” (1997)
    2. Nikolas Rose, “What is Psychiatry?” (2018)
  2. INSTITUTIONAL ORIGINS
    1. Brigham, “The Moral Treatment of Insanity” (1847)
    2. Tomes, “A Generous Confidence” (1981)
    3. Tomes, The Art of Asylum Keeping, ch. 3 (1984)
    4. Grob, “Class, Ethnicity, and Race in American Mental Hospitals, 1830-75” (1976)
  3. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY 1
    1. Harrington, Mind Fixers, pp. 3-31, 49-55 (2019)
    2. Stern, Eugenic Nation, ch. 3 (2015)
    3. Stern, “When California Sterilized 20,000 of its Citizens” (2016)
  4. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY 2
    1. Harrington, Mind Fixers, pp. 47-49, 55-73 (2019)
    2. Gambino, “Fevered Decisions” (2015)
    3. Penney and Statsny, The Lives They Left Behind, chs. 4-5, 7 (2009)
    4. “‘My Lobotomy’: Howard Dully’s Journey” (22m NPR broadcast) (2005)
  5. THE TALKING CURE
    1. Harrington, Mind Fixers, pp. 32-47, 74-97 (2019)
    2. Sicherman, “The New Psychiatry” (1978)
    3. Grob, “World War II and American Psychiatry” (1990)
    4. Buhle, Feminism and Its Discontents, ch. 4 (2000)
    5. “Let There Be Light” (1946) (58m film)
  6. ORIGINS OF CHILD PSYCHIATRY
    1. Jones, Taming the Troublesome Child, Intro, chs. 1-2 (1999)
    2. Doroshow, “Residential Treatment and the Invention of the Emotionally Disturbed Child” (2016)
    3. “The Bad Seed” (2h 9m film) (1956)
  7. THE CRISIS OF PSYCHIATRIC LEGITIMACY
    1. Harrington, Mind Fixers, 97-136 (2019)
    2. Maisel, “Bedlam 1946” (1946)
    3. Grob, “The Attack of Psychiatric Legitimacy” (2011)
    4. Whooley, On the Heels of Ignorance, ch. 5 (2019)
    5. “81 Words” (56m This American Life broadcast) (2002)
  8. PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AS A WAY OF LIFE
    1. Speaker, “From ‘Happiness Pills’ to ‘National Nightmare’” (1997)
    2. Hertzberg, “‘The Pill You Love Can Turn on You’” (2006)
    3. Kramer, Listening to Prozac, ch. 1 (1993)
    4. Rothman, “Shiny Happy People” (review of Listening to Prozac) (1994)
  9. DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION AND HOMELESSNESS
    1. Gronfein, “Incentives and Intentions in Mental Health Policy” (1986)
    2. Hopper, “More than Passing Strange” (1988)
    3. Luhrmann, “Uneasy Street” (2009)
    4. Prins, “Overrepresentation of Persons with SMI in the Criminal Justice System” (2011)
  10. CIVIL RIGHTS, PATIENT ACTIVISM, AND RECOVERY
    1. Coleman, “The Politics of Rationality” (2008)
    2. Selections from Madness Network News Video Archive
      1. Judi Chamberlin: Her Life, Our Movement
      2. Psychiatric Survivors Protest Smith Kline & French
      3. Howie the Harp: Advocacy
      4. Howie the Harp on Being Unhoused
      5. Why Celebrate Mad Pride?
    3. Sascha Altman DuBrul, Navigating Brilliance and Madness (TED talk) (2013)
    4. Aviv, “God Knows Where I Am” (2011)
    5. Stefan, “Response to Aviv” (2011)
    6. Meyers, “Culture, Stress, and Recovery from Schizophrenia” (2010)

ASSESSMENT

Trainees will be assessed iteratively over the course of the seminar on the basis of their preparation and engagement with the material and one another. Assessment will be on a pass/fail basis.

Administrative Information

  • Program Number

    RPSY606

  • Program Contacts

    Director: Matthew Gambino, MD, PhD
    Email: matthew.gambino@va.gov

  • Program Information

    Location: Zoom
    Duration of Elective:  2 weeks
    Night Call: No
    Weekends: No
    # of Students Accepted: 2 Min, 8 Max
    Housestaff Used as Faculty:  No
    Number of hours per week:   40
    Lectures/Conferences
    /Faculty Contact: Yes
    Laboratory: 0
    Independent Study:  0
    Outpatient:
    Inpatient:  0
    Total Hours /Week:  40