March 26, 2021, Anne Harrington, DPhil, “Mind Fixers”
In her recent book, Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for The Biology of Mental Illness, Dr. Harrington presents a fascinating history of psychiatry’s search for causes of and cures for mental illness. She discusses the various theories presented over the years and how social, political, and economic forces have shaped the way mental illness is treated. She reveals that the ‘biological revolution’ of the 1970s has not turned out to be the revolution that was touted. It’s a thought-provoking study and analysis of where psychiatry has been and where it is going.
Anne Harrington is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science and Director of Undergraduate Studies, specializing in the history of psychiatry, neuroscience, and the other mind and behavioral sciences at Harvard University. For six years, she co-directed Harvard’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. She also was a consultant for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mind-Body Interaction, and served for 12 years on the Board of the Mind and Life Institute, dedicated to cross-cultural exchange and collaboration between the sciences and various contemplative traditions. She was a founding co-editor of Biosocieties, a journal concerned with social science approaches to the life sciences.