Medical Humanities Blog

On Bad Science & Bad Law: Psychiatry and Involuntary Civil Commitment in American Law

Samantha Godwin (University College London & Georgetown Law) has posted a paper on SSRN entitled Bad Science Makes Bad Law: How Deference Afforded to Psychiatry Undermines Civil Liberties.  Like most papers on SSRN, it is available full-text, open access.  Here is the Abstract:

Courts and lawmakers trust psychiatric expertise when making judicial and public policy decisions concerning mental health, but is this trust well placed? This paper adopts a philosophy of science approach informed by medical research to evaluating the validity of psychiatric classification. This provides the basis for an interdisciplinary critical analysis of civil commitment law and use of psychiatric expert witnesses in light of legal evidence standards. This analysis demonstrates that involuntary civil commitment as it now stands is incompatible with broader due process and civil rights concerns and affords an unjustifiable evidentiary status to psychiatric diagnosis.

The paper is recommended.

On the Capabilities Approach

Ingrid Robeyns (Univ. Rotterdam - Philosophy) has authored a new entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the Capabilities Approach.  In lieu of an abstract, here is a the first paragraph:

The capability approach is a theoretical framework that entails two core normative claims: first, the claim that the freedom to achieve well-being is of primary moral importance, and second, that freedom to achieve well-being is to be understood in terms of people's capabilities, that is, their real opportunities to do and be what they have reason to value. The approach has been developed in a variety of more specific normative theories, such as (partial) theories of social justice or accounts of development ethics. It has also led to a new and highly interdisciplinary literature in the social sciences resulting in new statistics and social indicators, and to a new policy paradigm which is mainly used in development studies, the so-called ‘human development approach’.

The entry is highly recommended.

(h/t the Professor). 

On the Centre for the History of Medicine (UCL)

Since I covered in 2010, albeit not very well, the announcement that the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London was closing, it is worth noting the recent news that the Centre has been reconfigured as a part of the Biological Sciences Division of the Faculty of Life Sciences.  Its focus is now on the history of the neurosciences and related fields (a general subject in which my work on the history of pain is firmly planted in).

The new director is Stephen Jacyna, and you can find his statement on the changes here.

(h/t H-SCI-MED-TECH listserv)

Call for Applications: Historian of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University (20th c. American)

Historian of 20th Century US Medicine

The Institute of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University invites applications for a tenure track position in the history of 20th century US medicine. Applicants with interests in the history of clinical practice, history of disease, public health, race, and gender are particularly encouraged to apply, as are MD/PhDs. The Institute of the History of Medicine is part of the School of Medicine. An ability to interact effectively, not only with undergraduates and graduate students in History of Medicine, but also with medical students and faculty, is desirable. The successful applicant will have a strong research portfolio and teaching experience.

Founded in 1929, the Institute of the History of Medicine is dedicated to promoting scholarship on the history of medicine, disease, and the health sciences, and their relation to society, and to fostering a lively and collegial intellectual community. In addition, the Institute seeks to bring historical perspectives to bear on contemporary health issues. Faculty members teach graduate and undergraduate courses in the Schools of Medicine, Arts and Sciences, and Public Health. Together with the Department of the History of Science and Technology, located in the School of Arts and Science, the Institute runs a Ph.D. program in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology. The Institute possesses an extensive collection of primary and secondary sources on the history of medicine. The collection is a valuable resource for department faculty and students, and attracts visiting scholars from around the world.

Applications should include statements of the applicant’s research and teaching interests, a CV, and the names of three references. All application materials should be sent to Randall M. Packard, Director, Institute of the History of Medicine, Welch Medical Library, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 1900 East Monument St, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205. Applications may be sent electronically to rpackar2@jhmi.edu or by fax to Dr. Packard at 410-502-7592. Review of materials will begin September 15, 2011, for an appointment beginning July 1, 2012. John Hopkins University is an EEO/AA employer.

https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=42424

Randall M. Packard, PhD
Director
Department of the History of Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD 21205

___________________________________

(h/t H-SCI-MED-TECH)

On Life & Limb: The Experiences of Disabled Soldiers in the Post-Civil-War U.S.

The National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division, has just released its latest online exhibition, entitled Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War.  Following up on the heels of the recent focus on African-American health providers during the Civil War (Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine), the latest exhibition complements the analysis of medical practices, racism, and workforce issues during the Civil War with a look at the experiences of disabled veterans after the War.

I was overjoyed to see the latest exhibition for mostly selfish reasons; one of my current history projects is just such an analysis, examining the experiences of North Carolina Civil War veterans with the incipient N.C. pension system for Confederate veterans.  There is some general historiography on the lives of disabled veterans after the War, but I am reasonably confident in asserting that the literature is underdeveloped, especially as to the former Confederate states, which, unlike the Union, typically had no organized pension systems until the late 1870s-early 1880s (the Union established pensions for its soldiers in 1862).

Like virtually everything coming out of NLM-HMD these days, the exhibition is beautifully and thoughtfully put together.  Congratulations to Manon Parry (the curator), and all the people who contributed to the exhibition.  More generally, the resources at the NLM are just spectacular for anyone remotely interested in the history of medicine and public health, and the NLM's digitization and online accessibility focus are also first-rate.  The exhibition, not to mention the NLM-HMD web site itself, is highly recommended.