Dorothea Leighton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dorothea Leighton
|
|
|---|---|
| Born | 2 September 1908  |
| Died | 1992 (aged 83–84) |
| Occupation | Psychiatrist |
| Awards |
|
Dorothea Cross Leighton (born September 2, 1908 – died August 15, 1989) was an important American doctor. She was a social psychiatrist, which means she studied how society and culture affect mental health. She also helped create a new field called medical anthropology. This field combines medicine with the study of human societies and cultures.
Dorothea Leighton taught at famous universities like Cornell University and the University of North Carolina. She also started and led the Society for Medical Anthropology. With her husband, Alexander Leighton, she wrote a book called The Navajo Door. It was one of the first books to show how medical anthropology could be used in real life.
Contents
Early Life and School Days
Dorothea Cross was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, on September 2, 1908. She went to Bryn Mawr College and studied chemistry and biology. After graduating in 1930, she worked as a technician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
After two years, she decided to become a doctor. She studied at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and earned her medical degree (MD) in 1936. In 1937, she married Alexander Leighton, who was also a classmate. They later had two children.
Her Work and Research
After becoming a doctor, Leighton continued her studies. She learned about anthropology at Creighton University. Anthropology is the study of human societies, cultures, and their development. She also worked as a doctor specializing in psychiatry at a clinic in Baltimore.
Studying Health and Culture
In 1940, Dorothea Leighton began important fieldwork with the Navajo people in Arizona and New Mexico. This work was connected to the University of Chicago. She and her husband also did research in Alaska. Both studies aimed to combine anthropological methods with psychiatric interviews. This meant they looked at how people's culture and way of life affected their mental health.
In 1942, Leighton published a book. It compared the Navajo people's ideas about health with those of white people. From 1942 to 1945, she worked as a doctor for the Indian Personality Research Project. During this time, she worked with other famous researchers like Clyde Kluckhohn and John Adair.
Her 1944 book, The Navajo Door, written with Alexander Leighton, is very important. It is seen as one of the earliest examples of "applied medical anthropology." This means it showed how the study of culture and health could be used to solve real-world problems.
Teaching and Later Studies
From 1949 to 1952, Leighton was a professor at Cornell University. She taught about child development and family relationships. While at Cornell, she studied mental health in rural areas. She did fieldwork in Stirling County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Around 1960, she traveled to Nigeria to do similar research with the Yoruba people. She also conducted studies in Sweden. These studies helped her understand how different cultures approach health and well-being.
In 1965, Leighton became a professor at the University of North Carolina. She taught about public health and anthropology. She stayed there until she retired in 1974. After retiring, she moved to Fresno, California. She continued to be involved in academic work. In 1977, she gave lectures at the University of California, San Francisco. From 1981 to 1982, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. This was her last teaching job before she passed away on August 15, 1989.
Her Lasting Impact
Dorothea Leighton left a big mark on her field. While she was a professor at the University of North Carolina, she founded the Society for Medical Anthropology. This organization helps people who study the connection between health, illness, and culture. She was the very first president of this important society.
