Prof. Byron J. Good, Ph.D

Research Interest

Culture, Mental Health, Social Trauma, Human Subjectivity, and the Strengthening of Global Health Services.

Prof. Byron J. Good, B.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Department of Global Health and Social Medicine Harvard University, as well as in the Department of Anthropology at the same institution. He earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from University of Chicago. As a medical, psychiatric, and psychological anthropologist, Prof. Good has a longstanding interest in how diverse cultural forms shape the manifestation, experience, and response to serious mental illness across societies such as Indonesia, Iran, Turki, Amerika Serikat, and Tiongkok.

Over nearly five decades, Prof. Good has conducted extensive research focusing primarily on serious mental illness and community-based care across diverse settings, including Yogyakarta, as well as post-conflict and post-tsunami contexts in Aceh. Since 1996, he has been actively engaged in research in Indonesia, particularly through ethnographic studies of Javanese culture and its relationship to mental health. In addition, he has developed both quantitative and ethnographic research on the early phases of psychotic disorders, longitudinal trajectories of acute psychosis, and the effectiveness of mental health services.

Journals

Good, B. J., & Good, M. J. D. (2025). Ethnography from Medical Elsewheres. Cult Med Psychiatry 49, 1035–1043. doi.org/10.1007/s11013-025-09922-7

Tyas, T. H., Good, M. D., Pratikno, B., Subandi, M. A., Marchira, C. R., & Good, B. J. (2024). Unlocking the mentally ill in Indonesia: An empirical study of the effectiveness of a “Bebas Pasung” program in Central Java. PloS one, 19(10), e0302190. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302190

Yusuf, N. R., Prasetyo, S., & Good, B. J. (2024). Early Detection of Risk Factor for Suicidal Ideation Among Senior High School Students in Jakarta: Updated Measurement. Kesmas: Jurnal Kesehatan Masyarakat Nasional, 19(4), 223-232. doi.org/10.21109/kesmas.v19i4.1089

Subandi, M. A., Nihayah, M., Marchira, C. R., Tyas, T., Marastuti, A., Pratiwi, R., Mediola, F., Herdiyanto, Y. K., Sari, O. K., Good, M. D., & Good, B. J. (2023). The principles of recovery-oriented mental health services: A review of the guidelines from five different countries for developing a protocol to be implemented in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. PloS one, 18(3), e0276802. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276802

Subandi, M. A., Praptomojati, A., Marchira, C. R., DelVecchio Good, M. J., & Good, B. J. (2021). Cultural explanations of psychotic illness and care-seeking of family caregivers in Java, Indonesia. Transcultural psychiatry, 58(1), 3–13. doi.org/10.1177/1363461520916290

Marastuti, A., Subandi, M. A., Retnowati, S., Marchira, C. R., Yuen, C. M., Good, B. J., & Good, M. D. (2020). Development and Evaluation of a Mental Health Training Program for Community Health Workers in Indonesia. Community mental health journal, 56(7), 1248–1254. doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00579-7

Marchira, C. R., Supriyanto, I., Subandi, S., Good, M. J. D., & Good, B. J. (2019). Brief interactive psychoeducation for caregivers of patients with early phase psychosis in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Early intervention in psychiatry, 13(3), 469–476. doi.org/10.1111/eip.12506

Subandi, M. A., & Good, B. J. (2018). Shame as a cultural index of illness and recovery from psychotic illness in Java. Asian journal of psychiatry, 34, 33–37. doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2018.04.005

Marchira, C. R., Supriyanto, I., Subandi, Soewadi, & Good, B. J. (2016). The association between duration of untreated psychosis in first psychotic episode patients and help seeking behaviors in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. International journal of culture and mental health, 9(2), 120–126. doi.org/10.1080/17542863.2015.1103276

Good, B. J., DelVecchio Good, M. J., Abramowitz, S., Kleinman, A., & Panter-Brick, C. (2014). Medical humanitarianism: research insights in a changing field of practice. Social science & medicine (1982), 120, 311–316. doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.027

Yang, L. H., Chen, F. P., Sia, K. J., Lam, J., Lam, K., Ngo, H., Lee, S., Kleinman, A., & Good, B. (2014). “What matters most:” a cultural mechanism moderating structural vulnerability and moral experience of mental illness stigma. Social science & medicine (1982), 103, 84–93. doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.09.009

Zhang, T. H., Chow, A., Wang, L. L., Yu, J. H., Dai, Y. F., Lu, X., Good, M. J., Good, B. J., & Xiao, Z. P. (2013). Childhood maltreatment profile in a clinical population in China: a further analysis with existing data of an epidemiologic survey. Comprehensive psychiatry, 54(7), 856–864. doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2013.03.014

Further information 

Books

Good, B. J. (1993). Medicine, Rationality and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511811029

Editors

Hinton, D. E., & Good, B. J. (Eds.). (2016). Culture and PTSD: Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective. University of Pennsylvania Press. 

Hinton, D. E., & Good, B. J. (Eds.). (2009). Culture and panic disorder. Stanford University Press.
 
Good, M.-J. D., Hyde, S. T., Pinto, S., & Good, B. J. (Eds.). (2008). Postcolonial disorders. University of California Press.
 

Biehl, J., Good, B. J., & Kleinman, A. (Eds.). (2007). Subjectivity: Ethnographic investigations. University of California Press.

Giarelli, G., Good, M.-J. D., & Good, B. J. (Eds.). (2005). Clinical hermeneutics. Bologna.


Shweder, R. A., & Good, B. J. (Eds.). (2004). Clifford Geertz by his colleagues. University of Chicago Press.

Desjarlais, R., Eisenberg, L., Good, B. J., & Kleinman, A. (1995). World mental health: Problems and priorities in low-income countries. Oxford University Press.

Good, M.-J. D., Brodwin, P., Good, B. J., & Kleinman, A. (Eds.). (1992). Pain as human experience: An anthropological perspective. University of California Press.

Kleinman, A., & Good, B. J. (Eds.). (1985). Culture and depression: Studies in the anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry of affect and disorder. University of California Press.

  • Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine Harvard University (2000–2006)
  • President of the Society for Psychological Anthropology (2013–2015)
  • Editor-in-Chief of the journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry (1986–2004)
  • Director/Co-Director/primary organizer of various international training programs, including: the Harvard NIMH Training Program in Cultural and Mental Health Services (1984–2008), the Carnegie Fellowship Program involving physicians and social scientists from Kenya and Tanzania (1990–1999), the Freeman Fellowship Program for Southeast and East Asia (1996–2003), the Fogarty International Center Training Program in International Mental Health (2000–2017), and a USAID research collaboration program (2010–2016) involving Indonesian researchers, including those from the Faculty of Psychology at Universitas Gadjah Mada.
  1. Lifetime Mentoring Award (2000)
    Awarded by the Society for Medical Anthropology in recognition of his contributions to mentoring generations of researchers in medical anthropology.
  2. Lifetime Achievement Award (2017)
    Awarded by the Society for Psychological Anthropology for his lifetime achievements in advancing the field of psychological anthropology.
  1. Society for Psychological Anthropology
    President (2013–2015)
    This organization is part of the American Anthropological Association and focuses on the study of psychology within cultural contexts.
  2. Society for Medical Anthropology
    Active member and recipient of the Lifetime Mentoring Award
    This organization focuses on the study of relationships between culture, health, and illness.