"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). Jump to: navigation, search Erik Homburger Erikson (June 15, 1902 - May 12, 1994) was a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings, and for coining the phrase identity crisis. // Biography Eriksons heritage is somewhat mysterious. ...

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). Jump to: navigation, search Marvin Kaufmann Opler (June 13, 1914 - January 3, 1981) was an anthropologist, social psychologist born in Buffalo, New York. ...

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

External links

http://www.sanctuaryweb.com/main/social_psychiatry.htm

http://library.cpmc.columbia.edu/hsl/archives/findingaids/opler.html