The Corner Society "Metrics for Maladjustment: Psychobiology, Social Psychiatry, and the Development of Symptom Scales"

Michael Healey, PhD  Medical Student, University of Rochester

Metrics for Maladjustment: Psychobiology, Social Psychiatry, and the Development of Symptom Scales

At the end of World War II, psychiatrists in North America were faced with a problem. An alarming number of draftees had been deemed mentally unfit to serve, while others were rendered "psychiatrically disabled" by combat. All this suggested that thousands, if not millions, of seemingly healthy citizens were predisposed to psychoneuroses. But who, precisely, was at risk? And how could they be identified and directed to preventive care? From rural Nova Scotia to midtown Manhattan, psychiatrists began collaborating with social scientists and policy makers to search for answers. The questionnaires they developed to assess psychosomatic symptoms would be familiar to anyone who's walked into a doctor's office today. To make sense of the resulting data, however, these "social psychiatrists" had to define what, exactly, mental health was. By analyzing records from two landmark projects in psychiatric epidemiology, this talk will examine the values embedded in their definitions, and explore how they shaped the detection and diagnosis of mental illnesses for years to come.

 Michael Healey is a third-year medical student at the University of Rochester who recently earned a PhD in medical history and a graduate certificate in psychiatric epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. With this multi-faceted training, he has examined the techniques that clinicians and public health practitioners have used to screen for mental illness. He has presented his research to numerous audiences (beginning with the Corner Society six years ago) and has written for both historical and interdisciplinary journals. He has also promoted the health humanities more broadly by teaching students from high school to residency and organizing workshops for MD/PhDs outside of the natural sciences. After obtaining his MD, he plans to pursue further training in psychiatry and/or family medicine, so he can continue exploring the intersection between clinical practice and public mental health.