Richard Mollica Explained

Richard Francis Mollica
Birth Date:	20 December 1946
Birth Place:	Bronx, New York, US
Occupation:	Professor, researcher, writer, educator
Nationality:	American
Alma Mater:	Reed College University of New Mexico School of Medicine Yale School of Medicine Yale Divinity School
Spouse:	Karen Carlson
Children:	2

Richard F. Mollica (born December 20, 1946) is an American academic and writer. He is the Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma at Massachusetts General Hospital.^[1] His research focuses on Psychological trauma and recovery. Mollica has published over 160 scientific manuscripts,^[2] and has published Healing Invisible Wounds (2006) and Manifesto IV Healing a Violent World (2018). In 2022, he received the lifetime award from Harvard Medical School,^[3] and in 2023, the Lux et Veritas Award from Yale Divinity School^[4]

Mollica is considered a pioneer and founder of a new field of medicine Refugee Mental Health.^[5] He started one of America's first refugee clinics in Boston in December 1981.^[6]

The scientific and clinical work of Mollica and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma has served as a global model worldwide and has been replicated in many countries including the US, Australia, Canada, Italy, Bosnia Herzegovina, Haiti, and Ukraine.

Early life

Mollica was born in South Bronx.^[7] His grandparents were poor Italian immigrants. His mother was raised in a convent, and struggled with depression. His father was blind as a result of meningitis. Mollica's childhood was influenced by his love for books, and he excelled in mathematics and sciences at Brooklyn Technical High School. He further went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he finished his basic education.^[8]

After studying at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a neurology internship at the University of Toronto, Mollica went to Yale University in 1974 for his psychiatric residency and also attended the Yale Divinity School.^[7] After the residency, Mollica joined Harvard as a psychiatrist. He later opened a refugee clinic.

Amongst his researches, he advocates integrating Trauma-informed care into primary healthcare, despite resistance from primary physicians due to time constraints and lack of training. He introduced into medicine and the human rights field the concept of the Trauma Story in 1988. The Trauma Story is a key element in the Trauma-informed care of all patients who have survived traumatic life experiences.

Awards and honors

• 1993 Human Rights Award, American Psychiatric Association^[9]
• 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award: Equity Social Justice and Advocacy, Harvard Medical School^[3]
• 2023 Lux et Veritas Award, Yale Divinity School^[4]

Selected publications

Books

• Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to Hope and Recovery in a Violent World, 2006
• 2012 Trauma Story Assessment and Therapy: Journal for Field and Clinic^[10]
• 2012 Textbook of Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery, A Companion Guide for Field and Clinical Care of Traumatized People Worldwide^[11]
• 2012 Sun and Moon, A Khmer Journey Comic adapted and illustrated by Doug Anderson^[12]
• 2018 A Manifesto: Healing a Violent World^[13]
• 2022 Manifesto IV Healing a Violent World: The Will to Heal and Survive in an Apocalyptic World^[14]

Book chapters

• 1988 The Trauma Story: The Psychiatric Care of Refugee Survivors of Mass Violence and Torture in Post-Traumatic Therapy And Victims Of Violence by Frank M. Ochberg (pp. 295–314)^[15]
• 2015 The New H-5 Model of Refugee Trauma and Recovery in Violence and Mental Health: Its Manifold Faces by J. Lindert and I. Levav (Eds) (pp. 341–378)^[16]
• 2019 The New H-5 Model: Trauma and Recovery in Humanitarianism and Mass Migration: Confronting the World Crisis by Marcelo Suarez-Orozco (Ed) (pp. 123–136)^[17]
• 2021 Culturally Adapted Therapeutic Approaches: The Healing Environment and Restorative Therapy Model in Refugee Mental Health by Dr. Jamie D. Aten PhD and Jenny Hwang (Eds) (pp. 137–166)^[18]
• 2023 The Shamanistic Enclave: Building Refugee Healthcare Practitioners with M. Leister and L. Charks in Refugees, Refuge, and Human Displacement by Ignacio López-Calvo and Marjorie Ajosin (pp. 179–194)^[19]

Most cited papers

• The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Validating a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder in Indochinese refugees^[20]
• Indochinese versions of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25: a screening instrument for the psychiatric care of refugees^[21]
• Longitudinal study of psychiatric symptoms, disability, mortality, and emigration among Bosnian refugees^[22]
• Mental health in complex emergencies^[23]
• The Harvard trauma questionnaire: adapting a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraqi refugees^[24]
• Disability associated with psychiatric comorbidity and health status in Bosnian refugees living in Croatia^[25]
• The effect of trauma and confinement on functional health and mental health status of Cambodians living in Thailand-Cambodia border camps^[26]
• The psychosocial impact of war trauma and torture on Southeast Asian refugees^[27]
• Effects of war trauma on Cambodian refugee adolescents' functional health and mental health status^[28]
• Brain structural abnormalities and mental health sequelae in South Vietnamese ex-political detainees who survived traumatic head injury and torture^[29]
• The HTQ-5: revision of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire for measuring torture, trauma and DSM-5 PTSD symptoms in refugee populations^[30]
• The physical and psychological sequelae of torture. Symptomatology and diagnosis^[31]
• The enduring mental health impact of mass violence: a community comparison study of Cambodian civilians living in Cambodia and Thailand^[31]
• High Prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Relation to Social Factors in Affected Population One Year after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster^[32]
• A community study of formal pastoral counseling activities of the clergy. Am J Psychiatry^[33]
• From asylum to community. The threatened disintegration of public psychiatry^[34]
• Surviving torture^[35]
• Beyond Burnout: Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic Challenges to Self-care^[36]
• Mental and physical exhaustion of health-care practitioners^[37]
• Educational potential of a virtual patient system for caring for traumatized patients in primary care^[38]
• Equity and the psychiatric care of the black patient, 1950 to 1975^[39]
• Making strides towards better mental health care in Peru: Results from a primary care mental health training^[40]
• Social class and psychiatric practice: a revision of the Hollingshead and Redlich model^[41]
• Surviving without the asylum. An overview of the studies on the Italian reform movement^[42]
• Cultural dimensions in the evaluation and treatment of sexual trauma. An overview^[43]
• Waging a new kind of war. Invisible wounds^[44]
• Overview: Ethical issues in contemporary psychiatry^[45]
• When racial trauma is a chief complaint among health-care staff^[46]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Richard Mollica, M.D. . Massachusetts General Hospital.
2. Web site: Richard Francis Mollica, M.D. . Harvard Catalyst.
3. Web site: Equity, Social Justice, and Advocacy Award Past Recipients (2022) . Harvard Medical School Office For Diversity Inclusion And Community Partnership.
4. Web site: Richard F. Mollica, M.D. '79 M.A.R. . Yale Divinity School .
5. Web site: Helping traumatized refugees heal themselves . Liz . Mineo . 2021-12-01 . Med School Professor Richard Mollica's program has pioneered treatment, research for survivors over four decades . The Harvard Gazette.
6. News: The invisible and indelible wounds of war . Alessandro . Gisotti . In 1981, a young Italian-American psychiatrist founded the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, in Boston, a pioneering programme on the mental health care of survivors of mass violence and torture . L'Osservatore Romano . 15 . Fifty-seventh year . 2024-04-12 . 6–7.
7. Web site: 'Applied religion': M.D. alum pioneers care for traumatized refugees . Yanks . Lauren . 2024-03-20 . Yale University.
8. Web site: Reed College Graduation Certificate . 2024-07-13 . Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma.
9. Web site: Chester M. Pierce Human Rights Award Recipients 1992-2021 . 2024-06-07 . American Psychiatric Association.
10. Book: Mollica, Richard . Trauma Story Assessment and Therapy: Journal for Field and Clinic . August 2012. Lulu.com . 978-1-105-03506-7 .
11. Book: Mollica, Richard . Textbook of Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery, A Companion Guide for Field and Clinical Care of Traumatized People Worldwide . July 2012. Lulu.com . 978-1105851087 .
12. Book: Sun and Moon . Mollica R, Tor S . September 2011. 978-1105034701 .
13. Book: Mollica, Richard . A Manifesto. Healing a Violent World . Solis Press . November 2018. 978-1910146347 .
14. Book: Mollica, Richard . Manifesto IV Healing a Violent World: The Will to Heal and Survive in an Apocalyptic World . September 2022.
15. Book: Ochberg, Frank . Post-Traumatic Therapy And Victims Of Violence . Routledge . 295–314 . February 1988. 0876304900 .
16. Book: Violence and Mental Health: Its Manifold Faces . Lindert J, Levav I . Springer . 341–378 . March 2015. 978-9401789981 .
17. Book: Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo . Violence and Mental Health: Its Manifold Faces . University of California Press . 123–136 . January 2019. 978-0520297128 .
18. Book: Refugee Mental Health . Aten J, Hwang J . American Psychological Association . 137–166 . January 2021. 978-1433833724 .
19. Book: Refugees, Refuge, and Human Displacement . López-Calvo I, Ajosin M . Anthem Press . 179–194 . November 2022.
20. Mollica . R. F. . Caspi-Yavin . Y. . Bollini . P. . Truong . T. . Tor . S. . Lavelle . J. . February 1992 . The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Validating a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder in Indochinese refugees . The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease . 180 . 2 . 111–116 . 10.1097/00005053-199202000-00008 . 0022-3018 . 1737972.
21. Mollica . R. F. . Wyshak . G. . de Marneffe . D. . Khuon . F. . Lavelle . J. . April 1987 . Indochinese versions of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25: a screening instrument for the psychiatric care of refugees . The American Journal of Psychiatry . 144 . 4 . 497–500 . 10.1176/ajp.144.4.497 . 0002-953X . 3565621.
22. Mollica . R. F. . Sarajlic . N. . Chernoff . M. . Lavelle . J. . Vukovic . I. S. . Massagli . M. P. . 2001-08-01 . Longitudinal study of psychiatric symptoms, disability, mortality, and emigration among Bosnian refugees . JAMA . 286 . 5 . 546–554 . 10.1001/jama.286.5.546 . 0098-7484 . 11476656.
23. Mollica . R. F. . Cardozo . B. Lopes . Osofsky . H. J. . Raphael . B. . Ager . A. . Salama . P. . 2004-12-04 . Mental health in complex emergencies . Lancet . 364 . 9450 . 2058–2067 . 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17519-3 . 1474-547X . 15582064.
24. Shoeb . Marwa . Weinstein . Harvey . Mollica . Richard . September 2007 . The Harvard trauma questionnaire: adapting a cross-cultural instrument for measuring torture, trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in Iraqi refugees . The International Journal of Social Psychiatry . 53 . 5 . 447–463 . 10.1177/0020764007078362 . 0020-7640 . 18018666.
25. Mollica . R. F. . McInnes . K. . Sarajlić . N. . Lavelle . J. . Sarajlić . I. . Massagli . M. P. . 1999-08-04 . Disability associated with psychiatric comorbidity and health status in Bosnian refugees living in Croatia . JAMA . 282 . 5 . 433–439 . 10.1001/jama.282.5.433 . 0098-7484 . 10442658.
26. Mollica . R. F. . Donelan . K. . Tor . S. . Lavelle . J. . Elias . C. . Frankel . M. . Blendon . R. J. . 1993-08-04 . The effect of trauma and confinement on functional health and mental health status of Cambodians living in Thailand-Cambodia border camps . JAMA . 270 . 5 . 581–586 . 10.1001/jama.1993.03510050047025 . 0098-7484 . 8331755.
27. Mollica . R. F. . Wyshak . G. . Lavelle . J. . December 1987 . The psychosocial impact of war trauma and torture on Southeast Asian refugees . The American Journal of Psychiatry . 144 . 12 . 1567–1572 . 10.1176/ajp.144.12.1567 . 0002-953X . 3688280.
28. Mollica . R. F. . Poole . C. . Son . L. . Murray . C. C. . Tor . S. . August 1997 . Effects of war trauma on Cambodian refugee adolescents' functional health and mental health status . Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry . 36 . 8 . 1098–1106 . 10.1097/00004583-199708000-00017 . 0890-8567 . 9256589.
29. Mollica . Richard F. . Lyoo . In Kyoon . Chernoff . Miriam C. . Bui . Hoan X. . Lavelle . James . Yoon . Sujung J. . Kim . Jieun E. . Renshaw . Perry F. . November 2009 . Brain structural abnormalities and mental health sequelae in South Vietnamese ex-political detainees who survived traumatic head injury and torture . Archives of General Psychiatry . 66 . 11 . 1221–1232 . 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.127 . 1538-3636 . 19884610.
30. Berthold . S. Megan . Mollica . Richard F. . Silove . Derrick . Tay . Alvin Kuowei . Lavelle . James . Lindert . Jutta . 2019-06-01 . The HTQ-5: revision of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire for measuring torture, trauma and DSM-5 PTSD symptoms in refugee populations . European Journal of Public Health . 29 . 3 . 468–474 . 10.1093/eurpub/cky256 . 1464-360X . 30561573.
31. Goldfeld . A. E. . Mollica . R. F. . Pesavento . B. H. . Faraone . S. V. . 1988-05-13 . The physical and psychological sequelae of torture. Symptomatology and diagnosis . JAMA . 259 . 18 . 2725–2729 . 10.1001/jama.1988.03720180051032 . 0098-7484 . 3282086.
32. Tsujiuchi . Takuya . Yamaguchi . Maya . Masuda . Kazutaka . Tsuchida . Marisa . Inomata . Tadashi . Kumano . Hiroaki . Kikuchi . Yasushi . Augusterfer . Eugene F. . Mollica . Richard F. . 2016 . High Prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Relation to Social Factors in Affected Population One Year after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster . PLOS ONE . 11 . 3 . e0151807 . 10.1371/journal.pone.0151807 . free . 1932-6203 . 4803346 . 27002324. 2016PLoSO..1151807T .
33. A community study of formal pastoral counseling activities of the clergy. Am J Psychiatry . Mollica RF, Streets FJ, Boscarino J, Redlich FC . March 1986 . The American Journal of Psychiatry. 143 . 3 . 323–328 . 10.1176/ajp.143.3.323 . 3953866 .
34. From asylum to community. The threatened disintegration of public psychiatry . Mollica . Richard . 1983-02-17 . The New England Journal of Medicine. 308 . 7 . 367–373 . 10.1056/NEJM198302173080705 . 6823241 .
35. Surviving torture. Mollica . Richard . 2004-07-01 . The New England Journal of Medicine. 351. 1. 5–7. 10.1056/NEJMp048141. 15229300.
36. Beyond Burnout: Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic Challenges to Self-care . Mollica RF, Fernando DB, Augusterfer EF . 2021-03-09 . Current Psychiatry Reports. 23 . 4 . 21 . 10.1007/s11920-021-01230-2 . 33728512 . 7942210 .
37. Mental and physical exhaustion of health-care practitioners . Mollica RF, Fricchione GL . 2021-12-18 . Lancet. 398 . 10318 . 2243–2244 . 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02663-5 . 34922665 . 8676692 .
38. Educational potential of a virtual patient system for caring for traumatized patients in primary care . Ekblad S, Mollica RF, Fors U, Pantziaras I, Lavelle J . 2013-08-19 . BMC Medical Education. 13 . 110 . 10.1186/1472-6920-13-110 . free . 23957962 . 3765390 .
39. Equity and the psychiatric care of the black patient, 1950 to 1975 . Mollica RF, Blum JD, Redlich F . May 1980 . The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 168 . 5 . 279–286 . 10.1097/00005053-198005000-00008 . 7365493 .
40. Making strides towards better mental health care in Peru: Results from a primary care mental health training . Borba CP, Gelaye B, Zayas L, Ulloa M, Lavelle J, Mollica RF, Henderson DC . April 2015 . International Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and Mental Health. 3 . 1 . 9–19 . 10.12970/2310-8231.2015.03.01.3 . 27054141 . 4820320 .
41. Social class and psychiatric practice: a revision of the Hollingshead and Redlich model . Mollica RF, Milic M . January 1986 . The American Journal of Psychiatry. 143 . 1 . 12–17 . 10.1176/ajp.143.1.12 . 3942269 .
42. Surviving without the asylum. An overview of the studies on the Italian reform movement . Bollini P, Mollica RF . October 1989 . The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 177 . 10 . 607–615 . 10.1097/00005053-198910000-00003 . 2677238 .
43. Cultural dimensions in the evaluation and treatment of sexual trauma. An overview. Mollica RF, Son L . June 1989 . The Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 12. 2. 363–379. 10.1016/S0193-953X(18)30437-4. 2748443.
44. Waging a new kind of war. Invisible wounds . Mollica . Richard . June 2000 . Scientific American. 282 . 6 . 54–57 . 10.1038/scientificamerican0600-54 . 10862423 .
45. Overview: Ethical issues in contemporary psychiatry . Redlich F, Mollica RF . February 1976 . The American Journal of Psychiatry. 133 . 2 . 125–136 . 10.1176/ajp.133.2.125 . 766649 .
46. When racial trauma is a chief complaint among health-care staff . Mollica RF, Fernando D . 2020-11-14 . Lancet. 396 . 10262 . e84 . 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32223-6 . 33125928 .