Derek Summerfield is an honorary senior lecturer at London's Institute of Psychiatry and a member of the Executive Committee of Transcultural Special Interest Group at the

Royal College of Psychiatry The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...

. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association. He has published around 150 papers and has made other contributions in medical and social sciences literature.

Clinical background

Dr. Summerfield was born in South Africa. He qualified in medicine at

St Mary's Hospital Medical School St Mary's is the youngest of the constituent schools of Imperial College London, founded in 1854 as part of the new hospital in Paddington. During its existence in the 1980s and 1990s, it was the most popular medical school in the country, wit ...

in London. During his working career, he has been Principal Psychiatrist with the

Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture Freedom from Torture (previously known as The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture) is a British registered charity which provides therapeutic care for survivors of torture who seek protection in the UK. Since it was established ...

in London, Honorary Senior Lecturer at

St George's Hospital Medical School St George's, University of London (legally St George's Hospital Medical School, informally St George's or SGUL), is a University located in Tooting in South London and is a constituent college of the University of London. St George's has its o ...

at the University of London and a consultant to

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

on projects in war-affected settings. He was a Research/Teaching Associate for the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.

Research and publications

In 1995 he participated in a study on the psychiatric effects of the detention and torture of Palestinian political prisoners. He has been involved with various studies on the effects of war and atrocity, and of displacement and asylum-seeking in Nicaragua,

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

and the UK. He has published extensively on the effects of torture as well as the effects of war-related violence on women and children. He drew international attention with a series of publications questioning the existence of post-traumatic stress disorder, criticizing the medicalization of psychotherapy for trauma and the exaggeration of mental illness statistics. Recently he has argued that global mental health statistics should take into account differing

ethnopsychiatric Cross-cultural psychiatry (also known as Ethnopsychiatry or transcultural psychiatry or cultural psychiatry) is a branch of psychiatry concerned with the cultural context of mental disorders and the challenges of addressing ethnic diversity in psyc ...

definitions.

Palestinian controversy

Summerfield has been a vocal critic of the

Israeli Government The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the governmen ...

's actions against

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

and of what he believes are Israeli physicians' violations of

medical ethics Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...

. An October 16, 2004 editorial published by the

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

, concerning what he described as the level of Israeli violence against Palestinian children generated controversy and a number of responses both negative and positive. He also attempted unsuccessfully to force Yoram Blachar to resign as head of the World Medical Association after spearheading a petition drive claiming Blachar supported torture while he was working in Israel.

Critical Psychiatry

Dr. Summerfield is a member of UK branch of The International

Critical Psychiatry The Critical Psychiatry Network (CPN) is a psychiatric organization based in the United Kingdom. It was created by a group of British psychiatrists who met in Bradford, England in January 1999 in response to proposals by the British government to a ...

Network.Authors, The International Critical Psychiatry Network
Accessed May 10th, 2013

References

External links

Biography at the National Health Services website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summerfield, Derek British psychiatrists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people South African emigrants to the United Kingdom