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]

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][18][19][20] as well as the effects of war-related violence on women[21] and children.[22][23] He drew international attention with a series of publications questioning the existence of post-traumatic stress disorder,[24][25] criticizing the medicalization of psychotherapy for trauma[26][27][28] and the exaggeration of mental illness statistics.[29][30] Recently he has argued that global mental health statistics should take into account differing ethnopsychiatric definitions.[31]

Palestinian controversy

Summerfield has been a vocal critic of the Israeli Government's actions against Palestinians[32] and of what he believes are Israeli physicians' violations of medical ethics.[33][34][35][36] An October 16, 2004 editorial published by the British Medical Journal,[37] concerning what he described as the level of Israeli violence against Palestinian children generated controversy and a number of responses both negative[38][39] and positive.[40] 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.[41]

Critical Psychiatry

Dr. Summerfield is a member of UK branch of The International Critical Psychiatry Network.[42]

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. 16 October 1999. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)76261-9. S2CID 54285238.
  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. Summerfield, D (1993). "The roots of torture and atrocity". BMJ. 306 (6874): 403. doi:10.1136/bmj.306.6874.403. PMC 1676466.
  7. Summerfield, D. (1995). "Addressing human response to war and atrocity." in Beyond Trauma, New York: Plenum: 17-29.
  8. Summerfield, D. (1997) "The impact of war and atrocity on civilian populations." Psychological trauma: A developmental approach. D. Black, M. Newman, J. Harris-Hendricks and G. Mezey. Glasgow, Royal College of Psychiatrists: 148-155. Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  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. S2CID 31468258.
  10. Summerfield, D (1987). "Nicaragua: War and Mental Health". The Lancet. 330 (8564): 914. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(87)91398-5. PMID 2889105. S2CID 33497770.
  11. Summerfield, D (1990). "Nicaragua: Health and Revolution". The Lancet. 335 (8693): 845. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(90)90948-5. S2CID 54320502.
  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. S2CID 53301648.
  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. S2CID 26355758.
  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. S2CID 33487958.
  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. S2CID 23718254.
  17. Summerfield, D. A. (1990). "Doctors and torture". The Lancet. 336 (8715): 634. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(90)93433-p. PMID 1975407. S2CID 35061398.
  18. Summerfield, D (1993). "The roots of torture and atrocity". BMJ. 306 (6874): 403. doi:10.1136/bmj.306.6874.403. PMC 1676466.
  19. 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. S2CID 72288581.
  20. 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.
  21. Summerfield, D (1996). "Rwanda: When women become killers". The Lancet. 347 (9018): 1816. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(96)91625-6. S2CID 54229654.
  22. 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. S2CID 27234489.
  23. Summerfield, D (2000). "Childhood, War, Refugeedom and 'Trauma': Three Core Questions for Mental Health Professionals" (PDF). Transcultural Psychiatry. 37 (3): 417–433. doi:10.1177/136346150003700308. S2CID 73217600.
  24. 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. S2CID 42531638.
  25. Summerfield, D (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.
  26. Bracken, Patrick J.; Giller, Joan E.; Summerfield, Derek (1995). "Psychological responses to war and atrocity: the limitations of current concepts" (PDF). Social Science & Medicine. 40 (8): 1073–1082. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)00181-r. PMID 7597460.
  27. Summerfield, D (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.
  28. Summerfield, Derek (2004). "Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Medicalization of Human Suffering". Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. pp. 233–245. doi:10.1002/9780470713570.ch12. ISBN 9780470713570.
  29. 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.
  30. Summerfield, D. A. (2012). "The exaggerated claims of the mental health industry". BMJ. 344: e1791. doi:10.1136/bmj.e1791. PMID 22418416. S2CID 2311834.
  31. 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.
  32. 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. S2CID 46010110.
  33. 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. S2CID 54339474.
  34. Summerfield, D (1997). "The truth about Israeli medical ethics". The Lancet. 350 (9086): 1247. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)63477-0. S2CID 54239866.
  35. 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.
  36. 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. S2CID 28379277.
  37. 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.
  38. 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.
  39. 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.
  40. 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.
  41. "Doctors demand Yoram Blachar resign as ethics chief over Israeli torture," The Guardian, Sunday 21 June 2009 .
  42. Authors, The International Critical Psychiatry Network Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine Accessed May 10th, 2013
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