Derek Summerfield

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Derek Summerfield is an honorary senior lecturer at London's Institute of Psychiatry and a member of the Executive Committee of Transcultural Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatry. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association. He has published around 150 papers and has made other contributions in medical and social sciences literature. [1]

Contents

Clinical background

Dr. Summerfield was born in South Africa. [2] He qualified in medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. During his working career, he has been Principal Psychiatrist with the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture in London, Honorary Senior Lecturer at St George's Hospital Medical School at the University of London [3] and a consultant to Oxfam on projects in war-affected settings. He was a Research/Teaching Associate for the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. [4]

Research and publications

In 1995 he participated in a study on the psychiatric effects of the detention and torture of Palestinian political prisoners. [5] He has been involved with various studies on the effects of war and atrocity, [6] [7] [8] and of displacement and asylum-seeking [9] in Nicaragua, [10] [11] [12] Guatemala, [13] [14] Bosnia [15] and the UK. [16] He has published extensively on the effects of torture [17] [6] [18] [19] as well as the effects of war-related violence on women [20] and children. [21] [22] He drew international attention with a series of publications questioning the existence of post-traumatic stress disorder, [23] [24] criticizing the medicalization of psychotherapy for trauma [25] [24] [26] and the exaggeration of mental illness statistics. [27] [28] Recently he has argued that global mental health statistics should take into account differing ethnopsychiatric definitions. [29]

Palestinian controversy

Summerfield has been a vocal critic of the Israeli Government's actions against Palestinians [30] and of what he believes are Israeli physicians' violations of medical ethics. [31] [32] [33] [34] An October 16, 2004 editorial published by the British Medical Journal, [35] concerning what he described as the level of Israeli violence against Palestinian children generated controversy and a number of responses both negative [36] [37] and positive. [38] He also attempted unsuccessfully to force Yoram Blachar to resign as head of the World Medical Association after spearheading a petition drive claiming Blachar supported torture while he was working in Israel. [39]

Critical Psychiatry

Dr. Summerfield is a member of UK branch of The International Critical Psychiatry Network. [40]

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Derek Summerfield, BSc(Hons), MBBS, MRCPsych." Archived 2011-08-23 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 4-24-2012.
  2. ↑ "Derek Summerfield: Apartheid revisited." Al-Ahram Weekly, 14 - 20 August 2008, Issue No. 910. Archived 19 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ "Derek Summerfield". The Lancet. 354 (9187): 1398. October 1999. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)76261-9.
  4. ↑ Refugee Studies Centre Annual Report 2006-2007. Accessed 4-24-2012.
  5. ↑ Sarraj, E. E.; Punamaki, R. L.; et al. (1996). "Experiences of torture and ill-treatment and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among Palestinian political prisoners". Journal of Traumatic Stress. 9 (3): 595–606. doi:10.1002/jts.2490090315. PMID   8827659.
  6. 1 2 Summerfield, D. (6 February 1993). "Personal View". BMJ. 306 (6874): 403. doi:10.1136/bmj.306.6874.403. PMC   1676466 .[ non-primary source needed ]
  7. ↑ Summerfield, Derek (1995). "Addressing Human Response to War and Atrocity". Beyond Trauma. pp. 17–29. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-9421-2_2. ISBN   978-1-4757-9423-6.[ non-primary source needed ]
  8. ↑ Summerfield, Derek (1997). "The impact of war and atrocity on civilian populations". In Black, Dora; Newman, Martin; Harris-Hendriks, Jean; Mezey, Gillian (eds.). Psychological Trauma: A Developmental Approach. Royal College of Psychiatrists. pp. 148–155. ISBN   978-0-88048-578-4. OCLC   1176444233.[ non-primary source needed ]
  9. ↑ Summerfield, D.; Gorst-Unsworth, C. (1991). "Asylum seekers in British prisons". The Lancet. 338 (8776): 1212. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(91)92081-c. PMID   1682623.
  10. ↑ Summerfield, D (1987). "Nicaragua: War and Mental Health". The Lancet. 330 (8564): 914. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(87)91398-5. PMID   2889105.
  11. ↑ Summerfield, D (1990). "Nicaragua: Health and Revolution". The Lancet. 335 (8693): 845. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(90)90948-5.
  12. ↑ Summerfield, D (1995). "Raising the dead: War, reparation, and the politics of memory". BMJ. 311 (7003): 495–497. doi:10.1136/bmj.311.7003.495. PMC   2550549 . PMID   7647648.
  13. ↑ Summerfield, D (1991). "Guatemala: Health, human rights, and landlessness". The Lancet. 337 (8748): 1028–1029. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(91)92676-s.
  14. ↑ Summerfield, D (1997). "The Mayas of Guatemala: Surviving terror". The Lancet. 349 (9045): 130. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)63260-6. PMID   8996438.
  15. ↑ Summerfield, D (1999). "Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia: the medicalisation of the experience of war". The Lancet. 354 (9180): 771. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)90154-X . PMID   10475210.
  16. ↑ Summerfield, D (2003). "War, Exile, Moral Knowledge and the Limits of Psychiatric Understanding: A Clinical Case Study of a Bosnian Refugee in London". International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 49 (4): 264–268. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.119.9730 . doi:10.1177/0020764003494004. PMID   14727693.
  17. ↑ Summerfield, D. A. (1990). "Doctors and torture". The Lancet. 336 (8715): 634. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(90)93433-p. PMID   1975407.
  18. ↑ Summerfield, D (1995). "Book Review: Counselling & Therapy With Refugees: Psychological Problems of Victims of War, Torture & Repression by Guus van der Veer". BMJ. 310 (6975): 339. doi:10.1136/bmj.310.6975.339.
  19. ↑ Summerfield, D (1999). "Book Review: An End to Torture: Strategies for Its Eradication by Bertil Dunér". BMJ. 318 (7194): 1358. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7194.1358a.
  20. ↑ Summerfield, D (1996). "Rwanda: When women become killers". The Lancet. 347 (9018): 1816. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(96)91625-6.
  21. ↑ Summerfield, D (1998). "If children's lives are precious, which children?". The Lancet. 351 (9120): 1955. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(98)06056-5. PMID   9654281.
  22. ↑ Summerfield, D (2000). "Childhood, War, Refugeedom and 'Trauma': Three Core Questions for Mental Health Professionals". Transcultural Psychiatry. 37 (3): 417–433. doi:10.1177/136346150003700308.
  23. ↑ Summerfield, D (1998). "Trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, and war". The Lancet. 352 (9131): 911. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)60057-8. PMID   9743021.
  24. 1 2 Summerfield, D. (13 January 2001). "The invention of post-traumatic stress disorder and the social usefulness of a psychiatric category". BMJ. 322 (7278): 95–98. doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7278.95. PMC   1119389 . PMID   11154627.[ non-primary source needed ]
  25. ↑ Bracken, Patrick J.; Giller, Joan E.; Summerfield, Derek (1995). "Psychological responses to war and atrocity: the limitations of current concepts". Social Science & Medicine. 40 (8): 1073–1082. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)00181-r. PMID   7597460.
  26. ↑ Summerfield, Derek (2004). "Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Medicalization of Human Suffering". Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. pp. 233–245. doi:10.1002/9780470713570.ch12. ISBN   978-0-470-86284-1.
  27. ↑ Summerfield, D (2011). "Income inequality and mental health problems". The British Journal of Psychiatry. 198 (3): 239. doi: 10.1192/bjp.198.3.239 . PMID   21357885.
  28. ↑ Summerfield, D. A. (2012). "The exaggerated claims of the mental health industry". BMJ. 344: e1791. doi:10.1136/bmj.e1791. PMID   22418416.
  29. ↑ Summerfield, D (2008). "How scientifically valid is the knowledge base of global mental health?". BMJ. 336 (7651): 992–4. doi:10.1136/bmj.39513.441030.AD. PMC   2376212 . PMID   18456630.
  30. ↑ Summerfield, D.; Giacaman, R.; et al. (2011). "Mental health, social distress and political oppression: The case of the occupied Palestinian territory". Global Public Health. 6 (5): 547–559. doi:10.1080/17441692.2010.528443. PMID   21108104.
  31. ↑ Summerfield, D (1997). "Medical ethics: The Israeli Medical Association". The Lancet. 350 (9070): 63–4. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)66265-4. PMID   9217730.
  32. ↑ Summerfield, D (1997). "The truth about Israeli medical ethics". The Lancet. 350 (9086): 1247. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)63477-0 .
  33. ↑ Summerfield, D (2003). "Medical ethics, the Israeli Medical Association, and the state of the World Medical Association". BMJ. 327 (7423): 1108. doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7423.1107-b. PMC   261772 .
  34. ↑ Summerfield, D.; Green, C.; et al. (2007). "Medical ethical violations in Gaza". The Lancet. 370 (9605): 2102. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)61784-x. PMID   18156030.
  35. ↑ Summerfield, Derek (2004). "Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes". British Medical Journal . 329 (7471): 924. doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7471.924. PMC   523135 . PMID   29465916.
  36. ↑ Fellerman, Simon M (2004). "Palestinian health: the truth, the lies, and the statistics". British Medical Journal . 329 (7474): 1110. doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1110. PMC   526137 .
  37. ↑ Mansdorf, Irwin J (2004). "Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes". British Medical Journal . 329 (7474): 1102. doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1102-a. PMC   526161 .
  38. ↑ Rouse, A M (2004). "But about who's suffering worse—there's no argument". British Medical Journal . 329 (7474): 1101–1102. doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1101-b. PMC   526160 .
  39. ↑ "Doctors demand Yoram Blachar resign as ethics chief over Israeli torture," The Guardian, Sunday 21 June 2009 .
  40. ↑ Authors, The International Critical Psychiatry Network Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine Accessed May 10th, 2013
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