The history of psychology and associated disciplines in Haiti

This dissertation examines the development of Psychology as it relates to other sciences and the transfer of knowledge in Haiti. It traces the development and role of psychology with special focus on Louis Mars, the pioneer psychiatrist, and Chavannes Douyon, the father of psychology in Haiti. Their unique body of work relating to ethnopsychiatry, psychology, culture, and psychologicial testing is well referenced in Haiti.; In his fight to prevent and treat mental illness, Louis Mars introduced major charges in mental health practices. In 1941, he founded the ligue Nationale d'Hygiene Mentale in Haiti, which was a proposal to promote mental health. He introduced diagnostic classification of patients at the hospital, removed the chains and bars, and put a face and a name on patients suffering from mental illness. In 1946, he coined the word ethnopsychiatry, which reappeared in the principal dictionaries in 1952, representing a link between medicine and ethnology (Mars, 1993). It was a bold move that unified ethnology and the other social sciences in the diagnosis of mental illness and in the diagnostic formulation of certain manifestations that are non pathologic but culturally based.; Long before the establishment of psychology as an independent field of study at the university level in Haiti, Haitian students were studying it at the undergraduate level and at the universities and training centers abroad. 1936 marked the introduction of Haitian psychiatry. In 1956, psychology was introduced in Haiti with the creation of the department of psychology at the school of medicine of Port-Au-Prince. In 1974, Psychology was introduced at the university level at the Faculte des Sciences Humaines. Applied psychology was introduced with the opening of the Centre de Neurologie et de Psychiatrie Mars & Kline in 1958. In 1973, the Centre National d'Orientation Professionelle undertook a project to assess the intellectual potential of the Haitian child and the application of non-verbal instruments (Romain, 1985; Alexis et al., 1990; Douyon, 1991). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...