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Faculty Profile
Shorter, Edward, Ph.D. Harvard, F.R.S.C.Professor, St. George Campus; also cross-appointed to the Faculty of Medicine
(416) 978-2124
Office: FitzGerald Building, Room 83G, 150 College Street
Field: Social history of medicine, obstetrics, gynaecology, psychiatry, psychopharmacology; history of the family; history of sexuality; clinical science
A social historian of medicine and clinical scientist, Professor Shorter has published widely in this field, including the histories of obstetrics and gynaecology (Women’s Bodies), the doctor-patient relationship (Doctors and Their Patients), psychosomatic illness (From Paralysis to Fatigue), and sexuality (Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire). In 1991 he was appointed to the Faculty of Medicine as the Jason A. Hannah Professor in the History of Medicine. Since then he has emerged as an internationally recognized historian of psychiatry and the author of numerous books on the evolution of the discipline, including A History of Psychiatry (1997); A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry (2005); and Before Prozac (2009). In 1996 he was cross-appointed as a Professor of Psychiatry. In addition, his recent work includes Partnership for Excellence: Medicine at the University of Toronto and Academic Hospitals, a major history of the Faculty and its hospital affiliates (forthcoming from University of Toronto Press, 2013). His current interests include seeking in the record of the past for gems that are applicable to clinical problems today.