Preventing Mental Illness

Despo Kritsotaki is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Crete, Greece.   Vicky Long is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century British History at Newcastle University, UK.  Matthew Smith is Professor of Health History at the University of Strathclyde, UK.

• 1. Introduction; Matthew Smith, Vicky Long, Oonagh Walsh, and Despo Kritsotaki.- 2. Imagination and the Prevention of Violence: Frederic Wertham, Mass Media, and Mental Hygiene, 1946-1958; Dennis Doyle.- 3. ‘They may strike back at society in a vengeful manner’: Preventing the Psychological Scars of Acne in Post-War America; Iain Ferguson.- 4. Preventing Mental Illness, Preventing Delinquency: Juvenile Justice and Child Psychiatry in Post-war America; Erin Lux.- 5. Social and mental hygiene: Models of mental illness prevention in twentieth-century Greece (1900-1980); Despo Kritsotaki. 6. Socialism, Society, and the Struggle against Mental Illness: Preventative Psychiatry in Post-war Yugoslavia; Mat Savelli.- 7. The History of Suicide Prevention in Finland, 1860s-2010s; Mikko Myllykangas.- 8. Risk Assessment in an Age of Neoliberalism: John Monahan’s The Clinical Prediction of Violent Behavior (1981); Matthew Gambino.- 9. American Psychiatry in Transition: Reform or Revolution?; Lucas Richert and Matthew DeCloedt.- 10. Designing for Mental Health: Psychiatry, Psychology and the Architectural Study Project; Edmund Ramsden.- 11. Newgenics and the Politics of Choice: A Historical Look at Canada’s Psychiatric Institutions in the 1970s; Erika Dyck.- 12. Preventing Male Mental Illness in Post-War Britain; Ali Haggett.

“This engaging volume will be of interest to historians, interdisciplinary health researchers, policymakers, and mental health professionals alike —all who would benefit from learning about the seldom heard lessons of past endeavors. This important work will help to redress the gap in the historiography of preventive approaches to mental health that has largely been overlooked.” (Verusca Calabria, H-Net Reviews Humanities and Social Sciences, networks.h-net.org, October, 2020)