Des frontières culturelles en santé mentale au Canada? Entre psychiatrie, démographie et sociologie, retour sur les études pionnières de HMB Murphy en épidémiologie

Abstract

This contribution aims to explore the development of psychiatric epidemiology, an emerging academic field during the post-war period, in the context of ecological and environmental studies. The sources used here document the works of H. B. M. Murphy (1915-1987), a Scottish physician recruited by McGill in 1959 to teach and undertake epidemiologic research in the newly-formed transcultural psychiatry unit led by Eric Wittkower. Murphy’s break with traditional analysis of hospital statistics in order to focus on a small number of communities would lead him to confront the question of minorities and Franco-Canadian identity when interpreting his results.