Social psychiatry

"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.

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).

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).

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