Doyle Dennis
Department of History, P.O. Box H, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi 39762, USA.
J Hist Med Allied Sci. 2009 Apr;64(2):173-212. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrn064. Epub 2008 Nov 7.
In 1946, the Lafargue Mental Hygiene Clinic, a small outpatient facility run by volunteers, opened in Central Harlem. Lafargue lasted for almost thirteen years, providing the underserved black Harlemites with what might be later termed community mental health care. This article explores what the clinic meant to the African Americans who created, supported, and made use of its community-based services. While white humanitarianism often played a large role in creating such institutions, this clinic would not have existed without the help and support of both Harlem's black left and the increasingly activist African American church of the "long civil rights era." Not only did St. Philip's Church provide a physical home for the clinic, it also helped to integrate it into black Harlem, creating a patient community. The article concludes with a lengthy examination of these patients' clinical experiences. Relying upon patient case files, the article provides a unique snapshot of the psychologization of postwar American culture. Not only does the author detail the ways in which the largely working class patient community used this facility clinic, he also explores how the patients engaged with modern psychodynamic concepts in forming their own complex understandings of selfhood and mental health.
1946年，拉法格心理卫生诊所——一家由志愿者运营的小型门诊机构——在哈莱姆中心区开业。拉法格诊所存续了近十三年，为得不到充分服务的哈莱姆黑人居民提供了后来或许会被称作社区心理健康护理的服务。本文探讨了该诊所对于那些创建、支持并利用其基于社区的服务的非裔美国人而言意味着什么。虽然白人人道主义在创建此类机构方面常常发挥着重要作用，但如果没有哈莱姆黑人左翼以及“漫长民权时代”日益激进的非裔美国教会的帮助与支持，这家诊所是不可能存在的。圣菲利普教堂不仅为诊所提供了一个实体场所，还帮助将其融入黑人哈莱姆社区，创建了一个患者群体。文章最后对这些患者的临床经历进行了详细考察。依靠患者病例档案，本文提供了战后美国文化心理化的独特写照。作者不仅详细描述了以工人阶级为主的患者群体使用这家设施诊所的方式，还探讨了患者在形成对自我及心理健康的复杂理解过程中如何运用现代精神动力学概念。
