Open research questions in Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices
102 gap statements mined from Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,376 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
Choosing where to publish on Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices? See the ranked Psychology journals.
What the literature leaves open
The lack of commemoration and memorialization of the patients' lives in the hospital's history. The absence of stories and experiences of the patients in the existing records. The need for a counternarrative to the case files that provides a new perspective on the patients' lives.
He pointed to lack of evidence for increased psychological problems among gays, offered examples of questionable psychiatric categories in the past, and argued that the psychiatric diagnosis of homosexuality was just society's moral judgment dressed up as medicine3.
R. Spitzer and the depathologization of homosexuality: some considerations on the 50th anniversary · 2024 · DOIThe cultural effects of migration on immigrants, host communities, and countries are often neglected. The importance of multiculturalism in fostering creativity is not fully understood.
The study is limited to the Baltic Provinces before the First World War. The paper only analyzes a select number of autobiographical narratives and patient case records.
The study highlights the need for further research on the social and economic factors that influenced healthcare.
The study highlights the need to overcome the psychological barrier to Polish-Jewish coexistence created by the fear or disgust evoked by the Jewish body.
Reforma ciała. Fizyczność Żydów polskich w oświeceniowych ocenach potencjału obywatelskiego · 2026 · DOIFuture research could explore the ways in which historical perceptions of Jewish physicality continue to shape contemporary social and political issues. The study suggests that further analysis of the language and discourse used to describe the Jewish body could provide valuable insights into the ongoing impact of these perceptions.
Reforma ciała. Fizyczność Żydów polskich w oświeceniowych ocenach potencjału obywatelskiego · 2026 · DOIThe paper does not state any specific limitations. The analysis is based on a limited number of literary works. The paper does not provide any information on the potential biases or limitations of the methodology.
Vocile înăbușite ale orbilor. Semnificații ale tăcerii în Lumina ce se stinge..., Dumineca orbului și Despre eroi și morminte · 2026 · DOIFuture research could explore the representation of blindness and silence in other literary works. The analysis could be extended to include a broader range of authors and works. Future research could also investigate the implications of the paper's findings for communication and self-protection strategies used by blind individuals.
Vocile înăbușite ale orbilor. Semnificații ale tăcerii în Lumina ce se stinge..., Dumineca orbului și Despre eroi și morminte · 2026 · DOIThe discussion highlights the need for a deeper understanding of postcolonialism and its relevance today.
Future research could explore the implications of the paper's findings for therapeutic work with refugees and other groups affected by walls and borders. Future research could explore the role of walls in other contexts, such as in urban planning and architecture.
There is a need to recognize autophagia as a spectrum of behaviors, ranging from benign nail-biting to extreme forms of self-mutilation.
The novel highlights the need for culturally sensitive psychotherapy. The paper suggests that current psychotherapy approaches may not be effective for non-Caucasian populations.
Depictions of psychotherapy in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count – Psychiatry in literature · 2026 · DOIThe concept of holodysphrenia is not well-known outside of Portugal. The paper highlights the need for a more humane, recovery-focused approach to mental health services.
Holodysphrenia and acute schizophrenia: Professor Barahona Fernandes’s pioneering contribution to the nosology of acute transient psychoses – Psychiatry in history · 2026 · DOIThe lack of a widely accepted model of maintenance care at the time. The need for a more tolerable treatment option compared to earlier chemical convulsants. The gap in understanding the development of maintenance ECT as a model of care.
The rhythm of the fit: notes on early maintenance electroconvulsive therapy, 1940 – Psychiatry in history · 2026 · DOIIt is an open question of course, to what extent all medical practitioners thought deeply about their engagements, but one thing their complicated reckonings and detailed bequests make clear is that the increasing presence of medical elites depended on an engagement with the calculus and modes of thinking that underpinned the slave trade.
The paper identifies the challenge of cultivating Reparative Intelligence in a world that lacks care. It highlights the challenge of addressing the cultural and societal dynamics that undermine Reparative Intelligence. It argues that there is a challenge in recognizing and addressing the wounds of childhood misattunement and abuse.
It highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the psychodynamic origins of Reparative Intelligence. It argues that there is a lack of discussion on the cultural and societal dynamics that undermine Reparative Intelligence.
This remains an understudied yet significant topic, for as Thomson points out, by the 1930s almost 100,000 persons labeled as “mentally deficient” were under some form of state supervised care, making it one of the main areas of social welfare provision.
The Problem of Mental Deficiency: Eugenics, Democracy, and Social Policy in Britain c.1870-1959 (review) · 1999 · DOIBased on the observation that Basaglia's work is little known, this article attempts to revisit his thinking, highlighting the unique nature of his contributions and stressing the need for a better understanding of his work by those who are devoted to the field of mental health and social institutions.
The paper does not explicitly state its limitations. However, it appears to be limited by its focus on the Italian deinstitutionalization movement, which may not be generalizable to other contexts.
Deinstitutionalization and psychiatric expertise: Reflections on dangerousness, deviancy, and madness · 1986 · DOIThe paper suggests that future research should focus on the social and political context of psychiatric reform movements. It also emphasizes the need for further research on the Italian deinstitutionalization movement and its impact on Italian psychiatry. The paper suggests that researchers should consider the potential challenges and limitations of deinstitutionalization.
Deinstitutionalization and psychiatric expertise: Reflections on dangerousness, deviancy, and madness · 1986 · DOIThe combinatory dynamic of will strength and failure is largely ignored. The historical inscription of the body as cultural sign is a pervasive thematic in Foucault's studies.
The paper identifies a gap in understanding the role of walls as psychological and symbolic objects. The paper identifies a gap in understanding the dynamics of large-group identity and collective existence.
The paper identifies a gap in understanding the relationship between psychopathology and political ideologies - The paper highlights the complexities surrounding Pound's condition - The paper explores the need for a nuanced understanding…
‘I will not go mad to please you’: Ezra Pound (1885–1972) and his insanity plea against charges of treason – Psychiatry in history · 2026 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices
- Life of the mind: The interface of psychopharmaceuticals, domestic economies, and social abandonment · American Ethnologist · 2004 · 892 citations
- Blackness and Nothingness (Mysticism in the Flesh) · South Atlantic Quarterly · 2013 · 555 citations
- Health‐related stigma · Sociology of Health & Illness · 2009 · 537 citations
- Unsettling care: Troubling transnational itineraries of care in feminist health practices · Social Studies of Science · 2015 · 417 citations
- Crisis and Chronicity: Anthropological Perspectives on Continuous Conflict and Decline · Ethnos · 2008 · 403 citations
- Deleuze and the Anthropology of Becoming · Current Anthropology · 2010 · 344 citations
- THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE BEGINNINGS AND ENDS OF LIFE · Annual Review of Anthropology · 2005 · 260 citations
- Performing identities in illness narrative: masculinity and multiple sclerosis · Qualitative Research · 2003 · 213 citations
- A history of introspection. · Psychological Bulletin · 1953 · 212 citations
- Power, Privilege and Knowledge: the Untenable Promise of Co-production in Mental “Health” · Frontiers in Sociology · 2019 · 197 citations
Most recent work
- Some thoughts on Fanon and groups · Group Analysis · 2026
- Contagious Counter-Worlds: On the Idea of an Alternative in German Primary Healthcare · Culture Medicine and Psychiatry · 2026
- Why Fanon for group analysis now? · Group Analysis · 2026
- ‘Menopausal Women are MAD’: Menopause and Mental Health in Late Twentieth-Century Britain · Social History of Medicine · 2026
- What Counts as Resilience? Childhood Adversity, Psychiatric Epidemiology, and the Coloniality of the ‘Invulnerable’ · History of the Human Sciences · 2026
- Az első pszichológus akadémikusok és kapcsolataik: Posch, Schütz, Kornis, Révész Hit, politika és tudomány szétválasztása · Magyar Tudomány · 2026
- Psychic life and decolonization · Safundi · 2026
- Creativity, Migration and Multiculturalism · The Journal of Psychodrama Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy · 2026
- La potencia epistémica de la experticia por experiencia en los activismos locos · Tabula rasa · 2026
- From PK to Scholar-Activist: Continuing the Fight for Social Justice in a Dystopian Context · Journal of Applied Social Science · 2026
Find a gap in your own Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices sub-topic
This page shows what the Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, search the Research Gap Finder: the search is free with a free account and lists the papers closest to your topic first. Unlocking that topic (50 credits, charged once) fills the comparison table from our 4.5M-paper local library and writes the gaps from its rows.
Open the Research Gap Finder →