Dorian Deshauer

Dr. Deshauer is interested in the way technology drives changes in the way mental illness is perceived. His clinical work tends to centre around people who have been designated by the terms ‘bipolar disorder’ and ‘schizophrenia’. At present, he works as a psychiatric consultant to family physicians based at St. Michael’s hospital and to a team of healthcare workers in a downtown Toronto homeless shelter.

Dr. Deshauer is the lead editor of the Medicine and Society section in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). He teaches residents in family medicine and psychiatry and his academic teaching experience also includes undergraduate courses in the history of science and seminars in the history of psychiatry (UCLA). In addition to specialist certification in psychiatry, his background includes an MSc in epidemiology and an undergraduate degree in philosophy.

Research Synopsis

At present Dr. Deshauer is working on a multi-year research project as part of his PhD dissertation in Science and Technology Studies, supervised by Kenton Kroker and Eric Mykhalovskiy at York University and Ted Porter at UCLA. He is using a historical approach to clinical trials in the 1960's to trace the emergence of the long-term psychiatric drug 'responder' as central to the language and practices of late 20th century biological psychiatry.