The Rise of the Psychological Sciences in the American South, 1896-1965

FAIN: FA-52087-05

Anne C. Rose
Penn State (University Park, PA 16802-1503)

My research is a book project analyzing the introduction of the psychological sciences (psychiatry, psychology, and psychoanalysis) into the American South during the Jim Crow era. The work considers regionalism in the development of the mental sciences in the United States, and study of the South forces the question of how race affected the conception and treatment of psychological conditions. The project also elucidates southern culture by means of how the mental sciences took root; few studies of the South concentrate on the region’s practice of science. Finally, the study advances interest in the relation between religion and science by directing attention to the interaction of psychotherapy and faith healing.