hps.cesee&CHORUS book talk: History of Soviet Psychiatry with Grégory Dufaud, Benjamin Zajicek and Fanny Le Bonhomme

 hps.cesee&CHORUS book talk: History of Soviet Psychiatry with Grégory Dufaud, Benjamin Zajicek and Fanny Le Bonhomme. Thursday, May 5, 17:00-19:00 Central European Time (CET) / 18:00-20:00 Kyiv / 11:00-14:00 New York. Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hpsceseechorus-book-talk-gregory-dufaud-history-of-soviet-psychiatry-tickets-328135260397

The virtual platform HPS.CESEE and CHORUS: Colloquium for the History of Russian Science are proud to present the global book talk "History of Soviet Psychiatry". Benjamin Zajicek (Towson University) and Fanny Le Bonhomme (University of Poitiers) will join with Grégory Dufaud (Sciences Po Lyon), to discuss his recently published book Une histoire de la psychiatrie soviétique (History of Soviet Psychiatry) [1], in a discussion moderated by Alexei Kojevnikov (University of British Columbia). It is part of a series of open zoom events aiming to foster the discussion of new books and approaches within the history of science and scholarship (broadly understood) in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

"Soviet psychiatry is known today as a medical specialty that serves to support political opponents. Whille it is not wrong, this image is very reductive. Grégory Dufaud propose in this essay anther perspective. He shows how the treatment of psychiatric diseased was be a space of initiatives and innovations, animated by the psychiatric societies who were attentive to the mental health of the population and tried not to divide their work from the medical practice.

Exploring the variety of meanings and uses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, the book explores complex issues that linked political power and visions of scientific and social progress. This study offers thus a history of medicine and the practice of medicine and at the same time of social and political domination and authoritarian rule."

Thursday, May 5, 17:00-19:00 Central European Time (CET) / 18:00-20:00 Kyiv / 11:00-14:00 New York

The meeting is free and open to the public. To receive the link, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hpsceseechorus-book-talk-gregory-dufaud-history-of-soviet-psychiatry-tickets-328135260397 or write to hps.cesee@gmail.com.

[1] Grégory Dufaud, Une histoire de la psychiatrie soviétique, Paris, EHESS, coll. « En temps et lieux », 2021.

Participants:

Fanny Le Bonhomme (University of Poitiers) is associate professor and member of the Criham (Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires en histoire, histoire de l'art et musicologie). She completed her doctorate in 2016, with a dissertation about the social history of psychiatry in German Democratic Republic. Her research focuses on the social history of GDR and on the social history of psychiatry.

Grégory Dufaud (Sciences Po Lyon – LARHRA) is a specialist on the Soviet Union. He focuses his research on issues of government rationality, population management and social control.

Benjamin Zajicek (Townson University) was awarded a PhD from the University of Chicago for his dissertation, “Scientific Psychiatry in Stalin's Soviet Union: The Politics of Modern Medicine and the Struggle to Define ‘Pavlovian’ Psychiatry, 1939-1953.” His research focuses on the Soviet Union in the Stalin era, particularly the history of professions and the history of psychiatry. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled “Soviet Psychiatry under Stalin.”

Alexei Kojevnikov (University of British Columbia) works on the history of science and society in the twentieth-century. His publications investigate the role of cultural metaphors in “hard” sciences, the impact of war, social crises, and revolutions on scientific development, Soviet and socialist science.