Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM)

The Census of Mental Hospitals in the Caribbean was a comprehensive, one-day research project organized by the Caribbean Federation for Mental Health (CFMH). Founded at the Second Caribbean Conference for Mental Health in April 1959, the CFMH conducted the project on January 14, 1960, under the supervision of the World Federation for Mental Health and the Research Institute for the Study of Man. The census research project was the first systematic effort in the region to collect cross-cultural epidemiological ...

From the description of Records of the Census of Mental Hospitals in the Caribbean 1959-1971 (bulk 1960-1963). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 692629153

The Study of Chronic Marihuana Users in Jamaica (The Ganja Project) was commissioned in January 1970 by the Center for Studies of Narcotic and Drug Abuse of the National Institute of Mental Health and carried out by the Research Institute for the Study of Man in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the West Indies. The project was conceived as a combined anthropological/medical survey on the long-term effects of cannabis smoking. Ethnographic researchers investigated seven communities in Jamaica over a period of six months, and 60 subjects were selected from these communities. Thirty marijuana users with a history of at least ten years of past use, and 30 non-smokers, were selected for a series of medical and psychological examinations over a period of six days. Data analysis was completed in February 1972, and findings were reported to the National Institute of Mental Health in March of the same year.

Of note to researchers using this collection is the multidisciplinary nature of the study. Research on cannabis use that preceded The Ganja Project did not include an anthropological component. Jamaica was selected as the site for the study because of the cultural and religious significance of cannabis and its usage among the population. Researchers at the University of the West Indies were able to negotiate legal immunity for subjects with the Jamaican government, making this survey the first of its kind.

Controversy surrounded publication of the survey results. They did not confirm existing research concerning negative consequences derived from the use of cannabis, most particularly the "anti-motivational" aspect often associated with the use of the substance. The survey was widely covered in the press, and The Ganja Project collection contains many of these articles. Researchers continued to collect published materials relating to illegal drug use after the study was completed, and these materials are included as well.

Sources:

From the guide to the Study of Chronic Marihuana Users in Jamaica (The Ganja Study), Bulk, 1970, 1970-1981, (New York University Archives)

The Interuniversity Consortium for Research Training in the Caribbean was founded in early 1966. Administered by the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) in New York City, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, the Consortium developed a collaborative approach to extend scientific knowlege of the Caribbean and to improve the quality of research focused on this area.

Supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation, the Consortium began a sponsorship of research training programs in the summer of 1966. 26 social science graduate students from Brandeis University, McGill University, University of Montreal and Stanford University participated in the field training program during the summer of 1966. Special grants were made available to advanced students working with the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Guadeloupe, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. The North American universities provided pre-field seminars on Caribbean studies and post-field seminars for thesis preparation. In addition, UWI conducted a summer workshop on Caribbean society for students who required more basic grounding.

The Consortium was formed with several goals in mind, including interest in furthering inter-national academic collaboration and developing standards of ethics for fieldwork in the social sciences. The North American universities participating as full members of the Consortium agreed that students being sent to the Caribbean for their first fieldwork under Consortium auspices enroll in graduate training in research methods and participate in a seminar on the nature of Caribbean society. The Universities organized their teaching programs so that the knowledge and experiences of one group of trainees were passed on to the next group. The universities also agreed to provide supervisors of research, to participate in scholarly interchanges involving the return of findings to the host countries, to distribute these findings to other member universities and to provide fellowship opportunities for West Indian students who were studying abroad. Finally, conferences were held at the participating North American and Caribbean universities where research and training plans were coordinated.

From the guide to the Guide to Records of the Interuniversity Consortium, Bulk, 1965-1969, 1962-1975, (New York University Archives)

Founded in 1955, the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) is a non-profit organization that promotes and carries out multidisciplinary and cross cultural studies on topics of contemporary relevance. In 1959, a study was undertaken by RISM and the World Federation on Mental Health to understand the attitudes that medical students of all specialties and from around the world had towards issues of mental health in medicine.

Participants were asked about their feelings towards the salience of social and emotional factors in illness, their tolerance for handling cases where social and emotional problems complicated the medical problems, their attitudes towards diagnosing what falls within the scope of mental illness and the impact of social biases in diagnosing therapy. Questions regarding their personal backgrounds, their preferred specialties, stereotypes towards specialties and what environment they wanted to practice medicine in were also part of the questionnaire.

The questionnaire was administered to students in many parts of the world, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, and the United States.

From the guide to the Records of the RISM Medical School Attitude Questionnaire (MSAQ), 1959-1960, (New York University Archives)

In 1964, at the request of the U.S. Peace Corps, the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) initiated a three-year epidemiological and ethnograpic research project in Bolivia.

Headed by Dr. Vera Rubin, RISM's founder and director, and Lambros Comitas, assistant director, the Project employed more than eighty social and medical scientists and assistants. Organized as teams, researchers lived in six rural communities. Each community represented a major organizational type, ranging from minimally stratified and nonpolitical to complex stratification and politically revolutionized. Four of the communities were situated in the rural towns of Villa Abecia, Coroico, Reyes and Sorata, and two were in the Indian pueblos of Compi and San Miguel (see map).

The region had been impacted by major social reform in 1952 when the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) took power. New, politically mobilized campesinos from the rural Aymara and Quechua populations redistributed part of the country's national resources. The MNR made a number of efforts to integrate the society, which was stratified yet culturally heterogeneous and regionally oriented. Some of these most important efforts involved land reform, nationalization of the tin mines, establishment of institutional supports for the working population, and the dramatic expansion of rural education.

The project had two interrelated research objectives. The epidemiological team attempted to define the major problems of health and disease in rural Bolivian communities, taking into account the different ecological regions of the country. The ethnographic team delineated the major social features of each community by conducting a comparative study of social relations and social processes. Numerous volumes of ethnographic and sociological data were generated and subsequently used in comparative studies that included an extensive social survey of heads of households. This epidemiological and ethnographic research became fundamental to the planning of future community development programs and provided insight into the dynamics of community problems and community change.

However, the complexity of the research and analysis, as well as the interest in the application of scientific knowledge, resulted in more than a third of total project funding being provided by RISM. The methodological and theoretical development of the Project, as well as the research findings, were detailed in a report developed during the period of study. Quarterly reports, describing the work and the course of research, were filed with the Peace Corps. The epidemiological teams systematically sampled each community, and the results were entered into a database. The material was subsequently organized, analyzed, and used to prepare the final epidemiological report and summary of findings on health levels and health behavior. The final publication, Epidemiological Studies in Bolivia, was published in November 1967 and translated into Spanish ( Estudios Epidemiologicos en Bolivia ) by the epidemiological research team.

The ethnographic report was published in 1969 as Changing Rural Bolivia and in 1971 by Oxford University Press as Changing Rural Society . In addition, a number of articles, reports, theses and doctoral dissertations resulted from the project research.

Sources:

From the guide to the Records of the Bolivia Project, Bulk, 1964-1967, 1964-1997, (New York University Archives)

The Census of Mental Hospitals in the Caribbean was a comprehensive, one-day research project organized by the Caribbean Federation for Mental Health (CFMH). Founded at the Second Caribbean Conference for Mental Health in April 1959, the CFMH conducted the project on January 14, 1960, under the supervision of the World Federation for Mental Health and the Research Institute for the Study of Man.

The census research project was the first systematic effort in the region to collect cross-cultural epidemiological data on the socio-psychiatric characteristics of mental patients. Census research of this popuation also provided a comparative look at the local and regional patterns of mental illness.

Enumerators and hospital staff were provided with field instruction manuals and questionnaires in English, Dutch, Spanish, and French. Approximately 9,000 patients in mental hospitals in Antigua, the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and the U.S. Virgin Islands participated in the study.

The research findings, analyzed with the assistance of the Bureau of Registry and Statistics of Puerto Rico, provided information on a broad spectrum of variables in mental illness, including such contributing factors as migration, occupation, education, marital status, and family history. The final report concluded that standardization was needed in treatment procedures, diagnostic criteria, and nomenclature. Recommendations for institutional recordkeeping procedures, the development of in-training programs for mental health personnel, the exchange of information on administrative and technical problems, research on therapeutic measures, and release rates on familial and social factors in mental illness were also included in the report.

Source: Records of Census of Mental Hospitals in the Caribbean, Series I, Folder 5 Records of Census of Mental Hospitals in the Caribbean, Series IV, Folder 1

From the guide to the Records of the Census of Mental Hospitals in the Caribbean, Bulk, 1960-1963, 1959-1971, (New York University Archives)