Geopsychiatry and geography: A response.

Abstract

This contribution responds to three articles (we refer to all three as 'editorials') concerning something called 'geopsychiatry'. To evaluate claims made in these editorials for 'geopsychiatry' as a new field of inquiry at the interface between geography and psychiatry. Close critical reading of two editorials in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry - entitled 'Geographical determinants of mental health' and 'Political determinants of mental health' - and one in the International Review of Psychiatry - entitled 'What is geopsychiatry?' While this geopsychiatry initiative is to be applauded, disquiet can be expressed about the almost complete neglect of a pre-existing domain of inquiry - 'mental health geography' or 'the geography of mental health' - that has long been researched by academic geographers and cognate scholars. Key trajectories in this field can be identified and related to the proposed foci for geopsychiatry. The hope is voiced that future developments in geopsychiatry will proceed in dialogue with the literature and practitioners of mental health geography.