Alexander H. Leighton
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Alexander H. Leighton (July 17, 1908) is a sociologist and psychiatrist of dual citizenship (United States, by birth, and Canada, since 1975).
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, he received a B.A. degree from Princeton University in 1932, an M.S. from Cambridge University in England in 1934, and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1936. As of 1999, he has been Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, and Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University.
In 1948, he initiated and carried out (later joined by his wife, Jane Murphy) a decades-long studies in distribution of mental illness in a general population in several areas over the world.
He has served on advisory committees for the governments of Canada and the United States and for the World Health Organization. In 1975 he was honored with the National Health Scientist Award from Health and Welfare Canada.He is also a recipient of a Rema Lapouse Award from the American Public Health Association, a McAlpin Award from the U.S. National Association for Mental Health, a Joseph Zubin Award from the American Pyschopathological Association.
[edit] Bibliography
- "The Governing of Men" (1945: ISBN 0691086079, 1968: ISBN 0691024510) (online review), a social science book based on his work in a Japanese relocation center at Poston, Arizona
- After 15 months at Arizona's vast Poston Relocation Center as a social analyst, Commander Leighton concluded that many an American simply fails to remember that U.S. Japanese are human beings.[1]
- "Human Relations in a Changing World: Observations on the Uses of the Social Sciences" (1949)
- "My Name is Legion. Foundations for a Theory of Man in Relation to Culture" (1959) (online review), on effects of sociocultural factors on personality and psychiatric disorders
- "Further Explorations in Social Psychiatry" (editor, with Berton H. Kaplan) (1976 ISBN 0465025897), about etiological components of psychiatric disorders
- "Caring for Mentally Ill People: Psychological and Social Barriers in Historical Context" (1982, ISBN 0521234158)
- "Approaches to cross-cultural psychiatry" (with Jane M. Murphy) (1965)
[edit] References
- Marc-Adélard Tremblay, "Alexander H. Leighton's and Jane Murphy's Scientific Contributions in Psychiatric Epidemiology: A Personal Appreciation", Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 43, No. 1, 7-20 (2006)
