Symposium to Examine How Psychiatry Can Help Stem Racism

The late Chester Pierce, M.D.—the man and his legacy—will be honored at the Presidential Symposium “From Extreme Environments to Therapeutic Landscapes: Race, Psychiatry, and the Legacy of Chester Pierce,” at this year’s Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Pierce, who died September 23, 2016, was a pioneer in how race and racism affect mental health and mental illness. He helped put race and racism on APA’s agenda more than four decades ago.

APA President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D., said Pierce’s contributions are especially important in light of contemporary headlines and events. “Dr. Pierce’s deep understanding of race relations, especially between African Americans and white people, was unparalleled,” she told Psychiatric News. “My presidential year has been witness to many wonderful things, but also some very difficult ones such as events related to the critically important Black Lives Matter movement. At times like these, leaders like Dr. Pierce are absolutely essential.”

Oquendo will be joined at the symposium by incoming APA President Anita Everett, M.D., and APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A.

Everett said psychiatry owes Pierce a debt of gratitude for generating awareness about the effects of racism on mental health. “For younger psychiatrists who may not be familiar with Dr. Pierce’s vital contributions, we hope this symposium will be a learning experience,” she said. “For those of us who are acquainted with his work it will be an opportunity to reflect on his legacy and how it continues to be significant for us going forward.”

Levin echoed those remarks. “I’m proud to be participating in this presidential symposium honoring Chester Pierce,” he told Psychiatric News. “His insights into the way race and racism affect the health and mental health of minorities are critical for us today. APA is striving to meet the challenges of overcoming health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, and we owe a great deal to Dr. Pierce’s pioneering work in this critical area.”

Pierce, an emeritus professor of education and psychiatry at Harvard University, published more than 180 books, articles, and reviews. Along with James L. Mathis, M.D., and Vladamir Pishkin, M.D., he wrote the 1968 textbook Basic Psychiatry: A Primer of Concepts and Terminology. Pierce is credited with first coining the term “microaggressions” to denote the regular, ongoing, subtle ways in which minorities are denigrated.

Pierce took many professional trips to Antarctica, where a peak bears his name (Pierce Peak). It was partly out of this experience that he formed his ideas about “extreme environments”—how environments that are extremely challenging affect health and mental health. He extended those ideas to how adverse social environments affect mental health.

The symposium will bring together thought leaders on racism and the ways that race and racism affect mental health and illness. Speakers include David Williams, Ph.D., the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Carl Bell, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine and chair of psychiatry at Windsor University, St. Kitts; Mindy Fullilove, M.D., a professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical social medical sciences at Columbia University; and Helena Hansen, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Medical Center.

Ezra Griffith, M.D., chair of APA’s Committee on Ethics, who wrote the 1998 book Race and Excellence: My Dialogue With Chester Pierce, will provide an introduction and serve as discussant.

“This symposium will give Annual Meeting attendees an opportunity to look at the work and accomplishments that Chet achieved over his 89-year life span,” Griffith said in an interview. “Chet’s legacy allows APA to reflect on its past and figure out what path the organization must continue to take to address negative mental health consequences of racism.”

In a memorial to Pierce published in Psychiatric News following his death last year, Griffith recalled the way in which Pierce brought the subject of race to the attention of APA leadership 40 years ago.

“He told me of his participation in the 1968 struggle within APA to make clear the black constituency’s dissatisfaction with the white leadership’s modest interest in blacks and their concerns,” Griffith wrote. “But he never wanted to turn the psychiatric association into a flaming cauldron. He sought no distancing of blacks from whites. He wanted to confront whites frankly and plainly, without excessive drama, framing his thoughts about black bodies and minds and how they should be treated.”

Pierce’s influence on psychiatrists practicing today is widespread. “Chet was in many ways my hero,” said Bell, who will discuss “Anti-Racist Psychiatry” at the symposium. “He was a man of excellence. Chet saw racism as an abuse of human rights that has the potential to render psychological effects. I’m proud that APA is honoring him.” ■

“From Extreme Environments to Thera-peutic Landscapes: Race, Psychiatry and the Leg-acy of Chester Pierce” will be held Wednesday, May 24, 8 a.m.-11 a.m., Room 29B, Upper Level, San Diego Convention Center.