Collected in a single volume for the first time, the writings in this novel anthology represent more than four decades of perspectives from the American Psychiatric Associations Solomon Carter Fuller Award lectures, named for the first Black psychiatrist in the United States. The chapter authors-Solomon Carter Fuller awardees themselves, psychiatrists building on the work of previous awardees, and other scholar experts-offer a multidisciplinary, cross-sectional examination of both the historical and contemporary environments that inform the Black experience in the United States.
These treatises look at the intersection of mental health with topics that include the following:
* Public health and public policy
* Health care inequities
* Racism
* Economic well-being
* Media
* Education
Emphasizing the real challenges that Black communities have faced and continue to face, each chapter also offers reasons for perseverance in the face of adversity.
Readers will come away with a better understanding of the complexity of the Black experience in America and its impact on mental health, as well as a greater awareness of and appreciation for the legacy and ongoing contributions of Black psychiatric leaders to the field.
Donna M. Norris, M.D., is Assistant Professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Annelle B. Primm, M.D., M.P.H., is Senior Medical Director for The Steve Fund and Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Introduction
I. Conditions Affecting Life in Black Communities
Chapter 1. Public Health and Mental Health Disparities in Black Communities: Challenges for American
Chapter 2. The Highs and Lows of Public Health Practice
Chapter 3. Why Economic Disparities Matter in Mental Health
Chapter 4. African Americans and Substance Use
Chapter 5. Black Psychiatrists Responding to the Mental Health Impact of Natural and Human-Caused
Disasters and Systemic Inequities
II. Responding to the Realities of Racism
Chapter 6. Application of an Emotional Competence Framework to Racism
Chapter 7. Centering Blackness in Mental Health Equity
Chapter 8. The Media Is the Message: Film and TV Influences on Black Mental Health
III. A Call to Research
Chapter 9. The Work and Legacy of Dr. Carl Bell
Part 1: Building a Better Village
Part 2: Public Health Efforts
Chapter 10. Will Advances in Research Address Racial Disparities?
Chapter 11. Identities at the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Mental Illness: Remembering Chester Pierce
IV. Racism, Leadership, and Organized Psychiatry
Chapter 12. Reflections on the Origin of the Black Psychiatrists of America
Chapter 13. The Urgency of Responsible Leadership in American Psychiatry: Racial Bias and the Biopsychosocial Crises Impacting Mental Health in Communities of Color
Chapter 14. The Caravan Moves On: From Solomon Carter Fuller to Psychiatry in the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 15. Nigrescence and the Future of American Psychiatry Appendix: Solomon Carter Fuller Award Lecturers
