George W. Albee—
Psychologist Sought Social Cures
George W. Albee, 84, a psychologist who retired from the University of Vermont after a nationally recognized career pushing for new ways of treating mental illness, died July 8 at his home in Longboat Key, Fla. He had liver cancer.
Dr. Albee built a reputation as an early proponent of the idea that mental illness is caused by such social and environmental issues as poverty, racism and sexism, and not entirely by chemical imbalances in the brain. He pushed for social changes as a way to treat and prevent mental illness.
“Throughout his career, he would say, ‘No mass disorder afflicting humankind has ever been brought under control by attempts at treating the individual,’ “said Melissa Perry, a Harvard University public health professor who studied with Dr. Albee at the University of Vermont.
George Wilson Albee was a native of St. Marys, Pa., and a graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia. He received a doctorate in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
He spent 16 years at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and then moved to the University of Vermont in 1971. Four years later, he established the Vermont Conference on Primary Prevention of Psychopathology, which drew world attention during the 17 years he directed it.
The conference’s goal was to answer the question, “How do we structure our world to prevent the development of vulnerable people?” said Lynne Bond, a University of Vermont professor of psychology.
“He really highlighted the marginalization and oppression of people that contributes to their economic, social and psychological difficulties,” Bond said of Dr. Albee. “He believed that unless we look at social change and social justice, we are just spinning our wheels.”
Dr. Albee also spent time on a mental health commission appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s and on another appointed by President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. He was a former president of the American Psychological Association and wrote more than 200 articles and book chapters about mental illness prevention.
