Historical Perspectives on the Treatment of Mental Illness in the United States

1982 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-161
Author(s):  
Joyce M. Ray ◽  
F.G. Gosling
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical View ◽  
Steady Improvement

The traditional historical view of medicine is one of progress—slow but steady improvement made possible by the achievements of earlier pioneers. In psychiatry, a field in which cures remain elusive, this view has been called into question. The following article surveys the past treatment of mental illness in the United States and analyzes the work of various historians of the field. Changing definitions of insanity and concepts of care are considered, and implications for social policy are suggested.

Combined Chlorpromazine and Reserpine in the Treatment of Chronic Psychotics

1958 ◽  
Vol 104 (434) ◽  
pp. 201-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. S. Foote
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychiatric Practice ◽  
The Past

In the past few years many papers have appeared both in Europe and the United States of America demonstrating the value of Chlorpromazine and Reserpine in the treatment of mental illness. In the United States of America Kinross-Wright (1954) has reported on Chlorpromazine in the treatment of schizophrenia and claimed very satisfactory results; in this country Lomas (1955) and his collaborators have in several papers confirmed these results. With regard to Reserpine in the United States of America Kline (1954) has used the drug extensively with good results; in Europe, hopeful reports by Foote (1955) and McGrath et al. (1956) confirmed the value of this drug in psychiatric practice.

scholarly journals Reminders of ingroup privilege often threaten identity but rarely change beliefs

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis Puryear ◽  
Logan M. Steele ◽  
Joanna Lawler ◽  
Joseph Vandello
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Past Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
White People ◽  
The Past ◽  
Change Beliefs ◽  
Ingroup Identity

Despite progress over the past century, social inequality remains pervasive in the United States. One approach for addressing inequality is persuading members of high-status groups that their status is partly a product of privilege––that is, unearned advantages that are shared by most members of their group. However, telling people that the accomplishments of their group are not fully earned often elicits defensiveness. Acknowledging ingroup privileges can threaten ingroup identity, raising concerns that attempts to raise awareness of group-based advantages can backfire, making people less supportive of equality efforts. Two studies (N = 773) test the effects of exercises intended to raise privilege awareness. In Study 1, men completed checklists describing privileges men have relative to women. In Study 2, White people completed checklists describing White privileges and received feedback informing them of their privilege. People who acknowledge inequity felt guilt and gratitude after text-based privilege exercises, while people who deny inequity felt threatened by them. However, we find weak and inconsistent evidence that privilege awareness polarizes attitudes about race, gender, and social policy. While privilege awareness activities often appear to evoke defensiveness, they do not consistently polarize attitudes or backfire against their intended goals.

scholarly journals The Economics of Housing the Homeless: What Causes the Problem and Why Haven’t Federal Policies Helped?

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Sarah V. Ficenec
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Income Shocks ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Need To Evaluate

In the mid-1980s, homelessness increased in visibility across the United States, and interest rose as to the causes and possible solutions to the problem. Among others studying the issue, economists focused much of their attention on the central problem faced by the homeless – a lack of housing. Among the reasons economists cited for homelessness included a rise in housing prices, the filtering out of low-quality units in the housing market, increasing income inequality, and income shocks; these issues, combined with other factors that can make a person or family more susceptible to homelessness – such as substance abuse, mental illness, or social isolation – likely led to the increasing numbers of homeless in the 1980s. Looking at the causes of homelessness from an economic perspective also reinforces the reasons why many federal policies have been unable to solve or greatly decrease the problem in the past several decades. Since homelessness is still a concern across the country – especially in the wake of the recent recession – there continues to be a need to evaluate and find additional solutions to the problem.

The Tocqueville Problem: Civic Engagement in American Democracy

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theda Skocpol
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Public Concerns

Over the past 15 years, my scholarship has been devoted to understanding the patterns, the possibilities, and the impossibilities of politics and social policy in the United States. In this essay, therefore, I have decided to use historical evidence to address current public and scholarly debates about civic engagement in American democracy. As I hope to remind us all, social science historianscanspeak clearly to contemporary public concerns. We may be able to introduce some better evidence and more sophisticated explanations into ongoing debates.

International Research and Variation in Views of Ethnicity

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
Ella Inglebret ◽  
Amy Skinder-Meredith ◽  
Shana Bailey ◽  
Carla Jones ◽  
Ashley France
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Classification System ◽  
International Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Scale ◽  
Publication Patterns

The authors in this article first identify the extent to which research articles published in three American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journals included participants, age birth to 18 years, from international backgrounds (i.e., residence outside of the United States), and go on to describe associated publication patterns over the past 12 years. These patterns then provide a context for examining variation in the conceptualization of ethnicity on an international scale. Further, the authors examine terminology and categories used by 11 countries where research participants resided. Each country uses a unique classification system. Thus, it can be expected that descriptions of the ethnic characteristics of international participants involved in research published in ASHA journal articles will widely vary.

Proportion of Individuals With Past-Year Suicidal Ideation Who Attempted Suicide Over the Past 10 Years in the United States, and the Influence of Age and Sex

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Shannon Lange ◽  
Courtney Bagge ◽  
Charlotte Probst ◽  
Jürgen Rehm
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Random Effects ◽  
Attempted Suicide ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Age Category

Abstract. Background: In recent years, the rate of death by suicide has been increasing disproportionately among females and young adults in the United States. Presumably this trend has been mirrored by the proportion of individuals with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. Aim: We aimed to investigate whether the proportion of individuals in the United States with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide differed by age and/or sex, and whether this proportion has increased over time. Method: Individual-level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008–2017, were used to estimate the year-, age category-, and sex-specific proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. We then determined whether this proportion differed by age category, sex, and across years using random-effects meta-regression. Overall, age category- and sex-specific proportions across survey years were estimated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Although the proportion was found to be significantly higher among females and those aged 18–25 years, it had not significantly increased over the past 10 years. Limitations: Data were self-reported and restricted to past-year suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Conclusion: The increase in the death by suicide rate in the United States over the past 10 years was not mirrored by the proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide during this period.

EDITORIAL: Migration and competitiveness: Japan and the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Variable Cost ◽  
Fixed Cost ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Past Half

Japan and the United States, the world’s largest economies for most of the past half century, have very different immigration policies. Japan is the G7 economy most closed to immigrants, while the United States is the large economy most open to immigrants. Both Japan and the United States are debating how immigrants are and can con-tribute to the competitiveness of their economies in the 21st centuries. The papers in this special issue review the employment of and impacts of immigrants in some of the key sectors of the Japanese and US economies, including agriculture, health care, science and engineering, and construction and manufacturing. For example, in Japanese agriculture migrant trainees are a fixed cost to farmers during the three years they are in Japan, while US farmers who hire mostly unauthorized migrants hire and lay off workers as needed, making labour a variable cost.

Democratic Legitimacy

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
International Debate ◽  
The Past ◽  
Democratic Authority ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
Western Democracies

It's a commonplace occurrence that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. But this book argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding. The book makes the case that the sources of democratic legitimacy have shifted and multiplied over the past thirty years and that we need to comprehend and make better use of these new sources of legitimacy in order to strengthen our political self-belief and commitment to democracy. Drawing on examples from France and the United States, the book notes that there has been a major expansion of independent commissions, NGOs, regulatory authorities, and watchdogs in recent decades. At the same time, constitutional courts have become more willing and able to challenge legislatures. These institutional developments, which serve the democratic values of impartiality and reflexivity, have been accompanied by a new attentiveness to what the book calls the value of proximity, as governing structures have sought to find new spaces for minorities, the particular, and the local. To improve our democracies, we need to use these new sources of legitimacy more effectively and we need to incorporate them into our accounts of democratic government. This book is an original contribution to the vigorous international debate about democratic authority and legitimacy.

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