Dr. Joel 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 was a faculty member in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences from 1992, and the UCLA Department of History from 1996, until his move to Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry in 2023. 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.