Infrastructures of Canadian psychiatry under the Meyerian diaspora

Alex’s project examines the proliferation and impact of new reform ideas in psychiatry developed by the Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Adolf Meyer, and the spread of his ideas by trainees who adapted his reforms both inside and outside of psychiatry in Canada throughout the twentieth century in ways that are relevant today. Scholars still do not know how or where this reformation unfolded, nor do they comprehend the means through which it established the institutional, clinical, and educational places where psychiatry operates in Canada today, as well as cultural attitudes towards mental illness and health, or the part that Meyer and this diaspora played in this process. By using traditional historical methods, especially archival research and approaches from intellectual and cultural history, my research traces the evolving nature, extent, and limits of Meyerian psychiatry—something historians have yet to do—which will generate new and important perspectives on psychiatry’s history.