Johns Hopkins Legionary: Leighton's Lineage and Legacy

In: Transcultural psychiatry, Band 43, Heft 1, S. 21-44

Abstract

What is the relationship between sociocultural environment and psychiatric disorder? In particular, what is 'social disintegration', its characteristics, dangers and possible remediation? Alexander Hamilton Leighton and Jane Murphy's interdisciplinary contributions derive from those consuming concerns. This article contextualizes the famous Stirling County Study by suggesting that a hitherto unrecognized shaping role was played by William Henry Welch of Johns Hopkins and The Rockefeller Foundation, especially so through the example of Hopkins's epidemiological 'demonstration areas'. The article then details the Stirling County Study itself, including its relations with Dalhousie University and Canadian psychiatry. The concluding section identifies and assesses a wider set of achievements and contributions forming Leighton and Murphy's legacy to our several but interdependent fields of cross-cultural endeavour.