Arthur Kleinman, M.D. (born March 11, 1941) is a psychiatrist and anthropologist who is a leading figure in several fields: medical anthropology, cultural psychiatry, global health, social medicine and medical humanities. He has conducted research in China from 1978 to the present, and in Taiwan from 1969 until 1978.

He has supervised more than 75 Ph.D. students and over 200 postdoctoral fellows. Kleinman is the author of six books, co-author of two others, co-editor of nearly 30 volumes and eight special issues of journals, and author of over 300 articles, book chapters, reviews and introductions. Kleinman is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The 2001 winner of the Franz Boas Award of the American Anthropological Association (its highest award), Kleinman is a Distinguished Lifetime Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has twice given the Distinguished Lecture at NIH, and was until 2011, a member of its Council of Councils (the advisory board to the Director).

For a decade he chaired the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and from 1993-2000 he was Presley Professor in that Department. He is currently Professor of Medical Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. From 2004 through 2007, he chaired Harvard’s Department of Anthropology (FAS). Since 2002 he has served as Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology. Kleinman is also a Harvard College Professor of Harvard University and was given the Distinguished Faculty Award by the Harvard Foundation for 2011. Since 2008, Kleinman has been the Victor and William Fung Director of Harvard University’s Asia Center. Kleinman has conducted research in China on neurasthenia, depression, chronic pain, epilepsy, schizophrenia, SARS, stigma, and caregiving. He currently is researching caregiving for the elderly.