Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior

LABORATORY AND BRANCH RESEARCH REVIEWS 137

Laboratory of Socio-

Environmental Studies, NIMH

Prior to the establishment of the intramural research program, John A.
Clausen had been a consultant to the NIMH’s Professional Services
Branch, surveying national attitudes toward mental illness and psychiatry.^1
His research program for the Laboratory of Socio-Environmental Stud­
ies (SES) was initiated in 1951 with a project at St. Elizabeths Hospital
that investigated factors in family life that influenced the rehabilitation
of mental patients.^2 When Kety established the intramural basic research
program, the Laboratory of SES was incorporated into it. According to
Clausen, the laboratory was based on three propositions about the
relationship between mental health or illness and the social order: 1) that
life circumstances and relationships with family and friends affect an
individual’s vulnerability to certain types of mental illness, the precipita­
tion of mental illness, and the duration of such illness; 2) that social or­
ganization of mental institutions and the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors
of the staff influence patients’ desire and ability to interact with others
and cope with their illness; and 3) that the stigma society attaches to mental
illness adversely affects the onset of and recovery from the illness as well
as an individual’s ability to be involved in normal social relationships.^3
As a result, Clausen envisioned the laboratory’s goal to be the study of
social norms and processes which influence the development of person­
ality, how they affect a person’s ability to carry out normal family,
occupational, or community responsibilities and activities, and the way
mentally ill individuals are perceived, defined, and dealt with.^4 For this
he recruited a multidisciplinary staff consisting of sociologists, social
psychologists, and social anthropologists that produced a multiplicity of
methodologies, including sample surveys, controlled experiments, partic­
ipant observation, unstructured interviews, and epidemiological studies.^5