Joel Braslow

Joel T Braslow

Professor-in-Residence, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles

310-794-2930

BOX 957082, UCLA Wilshire Cntr, Ste 300
Los Angeles, CA 90095 10920 Wilshere Blvd
Ste 300
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Joel T. Braslow, Ph.D., holds the Frances M. O'Malley Administrative Chair in Neuroscience History.

Biography:

Dr. Braslow is a psychiatrist and historian whose work focuses on the social, cultural, and scientific constitution of therapeutic practices in medicine and psychiatry. His work examines twentieth-century American psychiatric practices, employing historical and health services research methods. He has been a faculty member in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences since 1992, and the UCLA Department of History since 1996. Dr. Braslow received his M.D. from Loma Linda University and his Ph.D. in History of Science from UCLA. His first book, “Mental Ills and Bodily Cures,” examined the ways in which physicians employed somatic and biological therapies, and how these uses were shaped by social and cultural concerns. Currently, he is working on “Antipsychotic drugs: science, practice, and culture, a history of antipsychotic drugs” from the 1950s to the present. The primary aim of this project is to explore how social and cultural factors shape, and are shaped by, clinical and scientific practices. This project is funded by a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Career Development Award and aims to integrate methods from history, anthropology, and health services research.

Publications