Interview with Samuel J. Keith, M.D., 2021-11-10, 2021-11-17
Scope and Contents
Dr. Keith talks about the role and expertise of NIMH that was crucial to the success of the 1989 U.S. psychiatric mission to the U.S.S.R. He recapitulates the main points and stumbling blocks of the negotiations with the Soviets in November 1988, various organizational aspects of the mission, as well as the interview instruments and methodology used by the American team. Dr. Keith shares his opinion about the concept of sluggish schizophrenia, its diagnostic criteria, and other factors that made it possible to abuse psychiatry in the Soviet Union. He also emphasizes Soviet life, society, and governance as of 1989. Dr. Keith discusses the Soviets’ admission of “hyperdiagnoses” and the validity of the excuse of “hyperdiagnoses” from the professional point of view. He also expresses his opinion about the tone of the final report and the general context that the American team had to keep in mind when drafting it. Dr. Keith describes Schizophrenia Bulletin and his role as its editor-in-chief. He also talks about the 1990 Soviet Reciprocal Visit to the U.S.
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: 2021-11-10
- Creation: 2021-11-17
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. Samuel Keith 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. Keith is the Emeritus Milton Rosenbaum Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He was a Deputy Director and Associate Director for Schizophrenia Programs at the NIMH as of 1989. He was the team leader of team # 1 during the 1989 psychiatric delegation to the U.S.S.R.
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