History of Psychiatry, Vol. 29, Issue 3, September 2018

2016

This workshop endeavours to comparatively evaluate the ideas and practices of some of the major contributors to the formation of the international discipline of transcultural psychiatry in the mid-twentieth century, a time that saw the transition from the colonial to post-colonial periods in many parts of the world, which had a direct effect on how mental illnesses were conceived of by psychiatrists sensitive to cultural differences. All of these psychiatrists had something different to offer the field. Emil Kraepelin, one of the major figures in late nineteenth century psychiatry, made a number of research trips abroad, leading to his development of the concept of “vergleichende Psychiatrie” (comparative psychiatry), which fitted many ‘exotic’ mental afflictions into his general psychopathological framework, and with the specific aim of considering the impact of syphilis and alcohol on mental health, particularly it’s role in general paralysis. Eric Wittkower was responsible for founding the most significant journal in this field, Transcultural Psychiatry, which operated as a means of drawing together all of the published comparative psychiatry that was emerging in this period, as well as co-founding the first program dedicated to the subject at McGill University (between the anthropology and psychiatry departments). He was at the centre of a network that has dominated the field to this day. PM Yap, a Chinese physician trained in the UK at Cambridge University and the Maudsley Institute of Psychiatry, London, worked mainly in Hong Kong, where he developed the concept of “culture-bound syndromes”, one of the key intellectual achievements of the discipline in the mid-twentieth century. Georges Devereux was one of the theorists to span anthropology, psychoanalysis and psychiatry in his original work on Native Americans, and made many important contributions to the field of comparative ethnopsychiatry. French psychiatrist Henri Collomb drew together researchers from anthropology, sociology and psychology at the University of Dakar (Senegal) to produce a new form of transcultural psychiatry that was sensitive to the effects of colonization and decolonization, much of which was published in the new journal Psychopathologie africaine, founded in 1965. Marianna Scarfone’s paper considers the contributions of Italian ethnopsychiatrists working in Africa (such as Angelo Bravi and Mario Felici) and their impact on Italian psychiatry. All of these psychiatrists made very significant contributions to the ways that that psychiatry addresses non-western cultures, although rarely is there an opportunity to comparatively assess their work and its impact on the field of transcultural psychiatry. This panel offers one such comparison, and is framed by Cornelius Borck’s reflection on the state of transcultural psychiatry in relation to the broader field of psychopathology, with its increasing biomedical interests. Anthropologist Anne Lovell will draw together these threads in her summing up of the workshop, followed by an open general discussion.

Kirmayer, L. J. (2007). Cultural psychiatry in historical perspective. In D. Bhugra & K. Bhui (Eds.), Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry (pp. 3-19). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cultural psychiatry stands at the crossroads of disciplines concerned with the impact of culture on behavior and experience. It emerges from a history of encounters between people of different backgrounds struggling to understand and respond to human suffering in contexts that confound the alien qualities of psychopathology with the strangeness of the cultural 'other'. The construct of culture offers one way to conceptualize such difference, allowing us to bring together race, ethnicity and ways of life under one broad rubric to examine the impact of social knowledge, institutions, and practices on health, illness and healing. Cultural psychiatry differs from the social sciences of medicine, however, in being driven primarily not by theoretical problems but by clinical imperatives. The choice of research questions and methods, no less than the interpretation of findings and the framing of professional practice, is shaped by this clinical agenda, which emphasizes the quest for therapeutic efficacy.

History of Psychology, 2019

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The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1990

Transcultural psychiatry, 2013

This year marks the 50th volume of Transcultural Psychiatry, a time for some celebration of longevity, and for taking stock of how far we have come and where we are going. As a clear sign of the vitality of cultural psychiatry, with this volume the journal moves to six issues per year. This year will feature several thematic issues on emerging issues in the field: the impact of the Internet and social media on identity, community, and mental health; cultural and community-based responses to trauma and violence; the resilience of Indigenous peoples; and a series of articles on recent progress in cultural psychiatry in different countries by members of the World Psychiatric Association Section on Transcultural Psychiatry.

Culture Medicine and Psychiatry, 1988

History of Psychiatry, 2018

The history of transcultural psychiatry has recently attracted much historical attention, including a workshop in March 2016 in which an international panel of scholars met at the Maison de Sciences de l'Homme Paris-Nord (MSH-PN). Papers from this workshop are presented here. By conceiving of transcultural psychiatry as a dynamic social field that frames its knowledge claims around epistemic objects that are specific to the field, and by focusing on the ways that concepts within this field are used to organize intellectual work, several themes are explored that draw this field into the historiography of psychiatry. Attention is paid to the organization of networks and publications, and to important actors within the field who brought about significant developments in the colonial and post-colonial conceptions of mental illness.