Women in Mental Health Who Are Influential in My Life

                  I would like to wrap up this series on influential women in mental health by highlighting women I find influential in my own life. These women include some women who have influenced not only my mental health journey, but also my life. After these women I would like to share some women I have encountered who while not personally impacting my journey, are still influential and who I look up to.

                  There are some women who have provided me with amazing mental health care. I would not be where I am without them. I would not be in a place to write this blog without them. I am not sure I would even be here without them. They are among the amazing women who contribute to the mental health field and belong among the other women I have featured in this series. These women make a difference in my life, and I am truly grateful for their healing presence. 

                  Thank you, Dr. S. You are incredible. You have changed my life and the course of my mental illness. You are there when I need support. You have restored my faith in psychiatrists by being the best. 

                  Thank you, Stephanie. You have guided me and held my hand when I didn’t know if I would make it. You have been there in my moments of crisis. You are incredible.

                  Dr. S and Stephanie, I appreciate both of you more than you will ever know.

                  Thank you, Brittany. You have kept me on the healing track and allowed me to search for my way. I appreciate you.

                  To all the techs who have been a part of both my esketamine and TMS treatments, thank you. Your work is important and healing. 

                  Thank you, Cristina. You understand the importance of mental health and support me in a way many primary care providers have not figured out. You are a reminder that mental health is a part of healthcare. I appreciate you.

                  Thank you to all the women working in mental health. You are seen and appreciated. 

                  And now for a couple women whose work inspires me to keep trying to make a difference.

                  Terry McGuire is the host of the podcast Giving Voice to Depression. As her podcast title says, Terry gives the voices of depression a place to be heard and shared. Her work has made a difference for many including me.

                  Katherine Ponte runs For Like Minds and Psych Ward Greeting Cards. These programs bring understanding to people living with mental illness. Her work inspires me to work to help others living with mental illness. 

                  Both Terry and Katherine use their lived experience to help others. Their work has influenced me, and I hope that one day I will have the reach they have achieved. 

                  I would also like to acknowledge all the women who work for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Your work is healing and makes a difference. I have met too many to name all here. Please know that your work and dedication make a difference.

                  My posts this month have highlighted women who have been influential in the mental health field. I shared the work of 10 women this month in addition to the women I have shared in this post. The work of all these women has made a difference. I highlighted them during Women’s History Month, but we should recognize them all year long. This is important. Right now, people in the United States, including our current government, want to minimize or even erase the accomplishments of women. We cannot allow that to happen. I encourage you to recognize the women who make a difference in your life. Share their influence. Reach out and let them know you appreciate them. Give them a card or just say “thank you”. I chose to recognize women in mental health because this is a depression blog. Don’t let Women’s History Month end without acknowledging the amazing things women do every day. Don’t let that acknowledgment end on March 31^st. The achievements of women are not confined to one month.

                  

 

There Are More Influential Women in the Mental Health Field

                  As Women’s History Month nears an end I would like to share the stories of a few more women this week. As I have said, it is important that we recognize their contributions to the mental health field. Men get so much of the recognition, but many advancements would not have happened if it were not for women. There are many women studying psychology and related fields in colleges today. They need to learn about the women who came before them. This knowledge will serve as a motivator and a call to strive for further advancements. Men can also learn from the work of all these women I have written about this month. After you read about these women, share their stories with others, men and women. Let’s give these amazing women the credit they deserve.

 

Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1886-1939)

 

"I do not know. I was intellectually curious. I worked hard, was honest except for those minor chicaneries which are occasionally necessary when authority is stupid, disliked waste, and was never afraid to undertake an experiment or to change my mind."

 

                  Leta Stetter Hollingworth was the first female psychologist in New York City. She worked at Columbia University. Her worked challenged the belief that women had inferior intelligence to men. She studied under educational psychologist E.L. Thorndike. She demonstrated that differences in intelligence was a result of societal roles not being born male or female. 

                  Hollingworth’s dissertation focused on women’s intelligence during menstruation. At the time it was believed that women had a decrease in performance on mental tasks during menstruation. Hollingworth’s work proved that there was no empirical evidence for this.

                  She also worked in educational psychology and coined the term “gifted”. Her work focused on nurturing gifted children. At the time it was believed that gifted children could take of themselves, but Hollingworth showed that these children needed to be nurtured. She developed a curriculum for gifted children.

                  Hollingworth’s early work studied women and led to changes in how women’s intellectual abilities were acknowledged. Most of her work was in the school setting where she worked in educational psychology. She died at the age of 53 from abdominal cancer. At the time of her death, she had more work planned.

                                                                                                                                   

Anna Freud (1885-1982)

 

"The best way to understand children is to observe them when they're on their own, unobserved."

 

                  Anna Freud was the daughter of Sigmund Freud, but she was more than just his daughter. She was an influential psychologist in her own right. She is the founder of child psychoanalysis. Anna Freud’s work contributed to the understanding of child psychology. Interestingly, Erik Erikson, a male psychologist who many in the world of psychology can name easily, was strongly influenced by the work of Anna Freud. 

                  Anna Freud recognized that children had different symptoms than adults, noting that these were often related to developmental stages. Her work included how the ego played a role in managing anxiety. The work of Anna Freud is the basis of modern child therapy and developmental psychology.

She also made contributions in understanding how the mind uses defense mechanisms to protect itself. She demonstrated that everyone uses defense mechanisms, not just people with psychological disorders. 

 

Leta Stetter Hollingworth and Anna Freud both made significant contributions in the field of psychology that have impacted mental health. They are examples of women who dedicated their lives to understanding the mind. 

If you have missed the first four post in this series on influential women in the mental health field, I encourage you to read them. The series started on March 10 and includes posts on 3/13, 3/17, and 3/20. There will be one more post on Thursday. 

 

 

Continuing to Discuss Women Who Have Made Contributions to Mental Health

                  I think it is important that we recognize the many women who have made contributions to the mental health field. Even today there are people who try to diminish the accomplishments of women. This makes it even more important that we learn about and celebrate these women.  If you took a high school or college introductory psychology course, you are no doubt familiar with Freud, Maslow, Piaget, Skinner, and Watson. All men. I did a Google search for pioneers of psychology. The results were all men. As my last few blog posts have shown, there are many women who have made equally as important contributions to psychology and mental health. So, here are two more women that we should know about.

 

Francine Shapiro (1948-2019)

 

“The past affects the present even without our being aware of it.”

 

                  Francine Shapiro created Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.  This treatment is a safe and effective way to help people address and process traumatic memories. Even though this treatment has been controversial, it has been found to be effective for working with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

                  Shapiro realized that when people have unprocessed trauma or trauma that is not fully processed, the feelings associated with it linger in the nervous system. Her first realization that eye movements could decrease negative emotion came while she was walking in a park in 1987 and noticed how her eye movements were associated with distressing memories that she had. She experimented with eye movements and found that others experienced a desensitization to distressing memories as a response to eye movements. This led her to develop EMDR. It includes work with the therapist and the eye movements. There is a set procedure that involves recalling a memory before the work with eye movements. EMDR is generally, conducted over 6 to 12 sessions.

                  In 2004 the American Psychiatric Association recommended EMDR as an effective treatment for trauma. Shapiro’s discovery and work are helping people with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

 

 

Nellie Bly (1864-1922)

 

“It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.”

 

                  Nellie Bly was a journalist, not a psychologist. As a woman, she fought to create opportunities to write newspaper articles. She wanted to write an article on immigrant’s experiences, but was denied by the editor of a newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer. Instead, he challenged her to investigate and write an article about Blackwell’s Island, a notorious New York mental asylum. Bly went undercover by acting as if she had a mental illness. She was admitted to Blackwell’s Island, where she experienced how badly people with mental illness were treated. The result of her time at Blackwell’s Island was a six-part series entitled Ten Days in the Madhouse. People were shocked by what she reported. Her reporting led to increased funding to improve conditions in the asylum. 

                  While Bly is remembered as the founder of investigative journalism, her series, Ten Days in the Madhouse, helped to change conditions in mental health facilities. She exposed the mistreatment of people with mental illness. She gave these people a face and made others aware of their humanity.  Bly’s work demonstrates that a person can influence how people with mental illness are treated even if they are not trained in psychology, leading the way for future mental health advocates.

 

                  Shapiro and Bly made contributions to mental health in different time periods. Bly’s efforts demonstrate that the treatment of mental illness has long been an issue. We are still fighting to improve the care of those with mental illness. Bly’s writing opened doors to allow the world to see that improvements in the care of those with mental illness are necessary. 

                  Shapiro’s work is much more recent. Her work provides a treatment option for people living with a specific mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder. It demonstrates that new approaches to treatment are always possible. We cannot stop researching and developing treatments for mental illness. 

                  As with the other women I have featured in the last few posts, I am guessing most readers have never heard the names of these women. I encourage you to remember the work of these women. Recognize their work. Celebrate it.

 

 

More Influential Women in the Mental Health Field

                 I was going to wait until Monday to write another post on influential women, but there are so many women to discuss, I decided to include more posts. Today I will feature two more women who made important contributions to the mental health field.

 

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)

“For with each year I live, with each book I read, with each observation I initiate or confirm, I am more deeply convinced that psychology should be conceived as the science of the self, or the person, as related to its environment, physical and social.”

 

                  Mary Whiton Calkins is a graduate of Wellesley College. After graduating she was given permission to attend seminars at Harvard University, which at the time was an all-male institution. She completed all the requirements for a PhD but was denied the degree because she was a woman. 

                  She taught psychology a Wellesley College, where she established one of the first psychological laboratories in the United States. Her research was focused on memory, dreams, and consciousness. She developed a system of self-psychology. According to this system the foundation of the study of psychology should be the conscious self. She opposed behaviorist John Watson’s idea that introspection was not a part of scientific psychology. 

                  Calkins invented a technique, called the paired-associate technique that is still used in memory research today. In this method pairs of items are presented. The items are usually words. Recall is tested by presenting the first item as cue and asking the person to recall the second item.

                  In 1905 Calkins became the first female president of the American Psychological Association. She was the 14^th president in the organization’s history. In addition, she became president of the American Philosophical Association in 1918.

It should be noted that Harvard still refuses to grant Mary Whiton Calkins the PhD posthumously, stating that Harvard did not admit women at the time she completed coursework there.

 

Mamie Phipps Clark (1917-1983)

“A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it brutalizes and dehumanizes them, blacks and whites alike.”

 

                  Mamie Phipps Clark grew up in the Jim Crow South. She lived with segregation. She witnessed the violence that goes with segregation. 

                  Clark earned a master’s degree from Howard University. She earned a PhD in psychology from Columbia University in 1943. She was the first African American woman to earn a PhD from Columbia University.

                  Her research was focused on child development and racial trauma. Her work was instrumental in desegregating schools in the South. She, along with her husband Kenneth Clark, is known for using doll tests to demonstrate how segregation negatively affected Black children. Her research with the “Doll Test” key evidence in the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. 

                  Along with her husband, Phipps Clark worked to make the field of psychology more inclusive. Mamie Phipps Clark was a Black woman in psychology when that was a rarity in the United States. She opened the door for diversity in the field of psychology. She used her own personal experiences to devise research that led to the end of segregation in schools. 

 

                  Mary Whiton Calkins and Mamie Phipps Clark made important contributions to the field of psychology and to American society. They paved the way for the women who are doing great work in mental health and psychology today. They broke barriers. Their work should not be forgotten.