Interview with Darrel Regier, M.D., 2021-09-29, 2021-09-30
Scope and Contents
The interview with Dr. Regier is of critical importance for the comprehensive retrospective evaluation of the long-term impact of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. Dr. Regier not only played a key role in the preparation and implementation of the mission, but also successfully continued to help develop the quality and accessibility of mental health services in Russia after the U.S.S.R. collapse. Dr. Regier also continued to tackle the issue of psychiatric abuse in China.
In his interview, Dr. Regier gives a historical overview of the development of diagnostic criteria that was subsequently used during the U.S. State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. relating to psychiatric abuse. This interview provides a great description of the methodology used during the interviews. Dr. Regier also describes the NIMH goals, unique role and contribution to the 1989 mission and shares his insights about the factors that made it possible to weaponize psychiatry against dissidents in the Soviet Union. Dr. Regier also tells about his role in the work of Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission in the area on mental health care in Russia post the Soviet Union breakup.
Olena Protsenko, a Post-doctoral Research Associate in Psychiatry and Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, conducted this interview remotely over the Zoom application.
Dates
- Creation: 2021-09-29
- Creation: 2021-09-30
Creator
- From the Collection: Roth, Loren H. (Person)
- From the Collection: Bloom, Joseph D. (Person)
- From the Collection: Borissow, Kyrill (Person)
- From the Collection: Carpenter, William T. (Person)
- From the Collection: Farrand, Robert William, 1934- (Person)
- From the Collection: Hirschfeld, Robert M. A. (Person)
- From the Collection: Hopkins, William H. (William Hugh), 1942- (Person)
- From the Collection: Keith, Samuel J. (Person)
- From the Collection: Kleyman, Felix, Dr. (Person)
- From the Collection: Kovalev, A. A. (Andreĭ Anatolʹevich) (Person)
- From the Collection: Mercer, Ellen Robertson (Person)
- From the Collection: Monahan, John (John Thomas), 1946- (Person)
- From the Collection: Reddaway, Peter (1939) (Person)
- From the Collection: Regier, Darrel A. (Person)
- From the Collection: Smith, Carolyn (Person)
- From the Collection: Stern, Leon (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Dr. Darrel Regier did not request any additional restrictions on access to this interview beyond those that the University of Virginia has made for all the oral histories from the Soviet Psychiatry Oral History Project (2021-2022).
Biographical / Historical
Dr. Darrel Regier was the Scientific Director of the 1989 State Department investigative mission to the U.S.S.R. and coordinated all aspects of the clinical assessment procedure. Dr. Regier completed twenty-five years at the National Institute of Mental Health (N.I.M.H.), during which time he directed three research divisions in the areas of epidemiology, prevention, clinical research, and health services research. Dr. Regier is currently a Senior Scientist at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, in the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University. He also serves as an independent senior scientific consultant to the American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.) on DSM-5 and research related issues.
Extent
From the Series: 138.5775 Gigabytes
From the Series: .25 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
From the Series: English
From the Series: Russian
Repository Details
Part of the Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections Repository
Arthur J. Morris Law Library
580 Massie Road
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22903 United States
archives@law.virginia.edu