Handbook of Cultural Psychiatry

Handbook of Cultural Psychiatry

Author: Wen-Shing Tseng

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2001-06-06

Total Pages: 877

ISBN-13: 0080525628

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Cultural psychiatry is primarily concerned with the transcultural aspects of mental health related to human behavior, psychopathology and treatment. At a clinical level, cultural psychiatry aims to promote culturally relevant mental health care for patients of diverse ethnic or cultural backgrounds. From the standpoint of research, cultural psychiatry is interested in studying how ethnic or cultural factors may influence human behavior and psychopathology as well as the art of healing. On a theoretical level, cultural psychiatry aims to expand the knowledge and theories about mental health-related human behavior and mental problems by widening the sources of information and findings transculturally, and providing cross-cultural validation. This work represents the first comprehensive attempt to pull together the clinical, research and theoretical findings in a single volume. Key Features * Written by a nationally and internationally well-known author and scholar * The material focuses not only on the United States but also on various cultural settings around the world so that the subject matter can be examined broadly from universal as well as cross-cultural perspectives * Proper combination of clinical practicalities and conceptual discussion * Serves as a major source for use in the training of psychiatric residents and mental health personnel as well as students of behavior science in the areas of culture and mental health * A total of 50 chapters with detailed cross-referencing * Nearly 2000 references plus an appendix of almost 400 books * 130 tables and figures


The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

Author: Diana Stein

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-31

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 1000464733

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For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art. Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.


Promising Rituals

Promising Rituals

Author: Beatrix Hauser

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2020-11-29

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1000059227

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This book shows how the performance of rituals influences the understanding that Hindu women form of their own selves, their sense of femininity, identity as well as their role and position in the lived-in world, and vice versa. Drawn from an intensive ethnographic fieldwork in southern Orissa, each section of the book takes a close look at a specific ritual practice, in exploring concepts such as purity/pollution, religious observances (such as fasting), deity possession, associated beliefs and attitudes, as also celebrated traditions such as Thākurānī Yātrā, local processions, and the role of female ritual specialists. The study uses the premise that religious practices in themselves are neither restricting nor liberating; rather rituals provide a perceptual context with the ability to affect the self-understanding of participants, as also their conception of agency, in a way that spills across non-ritual spheres. Conceptualizing gender identity as resulting from seen, but mostly unnoticed, everyday activities and approaching cultural performances as sites of collectively defining the self, the author offers a telling and vivid account of how women perceive, realize and reflect on religious ideas, while engaging in rituals and, by doing so, negotiate complex gender norms. The book also examines the assumptions of recent theories on the social construction of identities, often-debated impact of religion on women, performativity, self-identity, and ritual agency in considering ‘doing’ gender in a traditional, non-Western context. This book will serve as essential reading for scholars of sociology, anthropology, gender studies, cultural studies, history, religion, performance, and folklore studies.


Censorship

Censorship

Author: Derek Jones

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2001-12-01

Total Pages: 2950

ISBN-13: 1136798641

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First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.


Haunted by the Archaic Shaman

Haunted by the Archaic Shaman

Author: H. Sidky

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780739126219

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Haunted by the Archaic Shaman critically engages the general discourse on shamanism by using ethnographic data gathered among different ethnic groups in the Nepal Himalayas to address several key conceptual issues and problems in the scholarly field of shamanic studies. Sidky not only tackles topics that appear beyond resolution to many, such as defining shamanism and delimiting its geographical scope, but also challenges on empirical and theoretical grounds several widely held ideas that have assumed the status of incontrovertible facts, such as the antiquity of shamanism and its place in the rise of human religiosity. This book makes a significant theoretical contribution to the field of shamanic studies and the anthropology of religion.


Anomalous Experiences

Anomalous Experiences

Author: Matthew D. Smith

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0786455713

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Thirteen essays on the psychology and parapsychology of anomalous experience explore a range of phenomena, including extrasensory perception, haunting experiences, apparitions, alien contacts, seance room activity, and out-of-body experiences. The contributors are Daryl J. Bem, Etzel Cardena, Jezz Fox, Rachel Fox, Christopher C. French, Victoria Hamilton, Craig D. Murray, Ciaran O'Keeffe, Steve Parsons, Chris A. Roe, Julia Santomauro, Simon J. Sherwood, Christine Simmonds-Moore, Paul Stevens, Michael Thalbourne, Caroline Watt, Richard Wiseman and Robin Wooffitt.


Divine Mania

Divine Mania

Author: Yulia Ustinova

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-16

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1351581260

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‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – says Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Certain forms of alteration of consciousness, considered to be inspired by supernatural forces, were actively sought in ancient Greece. Divine mania comprises a fascinating array of diverse experiences: numerous initiates underwent some kind of alteration of consciousness during mystery rites; sacred officials and inquirers attained revelations in major oracular centres; possession states were actively sought; finally, some thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Socrates, probably practiced manipulation of consciousness. These experiences, which could be voluntary or involuntary, intense or mild, were interpreted as an invasive divine power within one’s mind, or illumination granted by a super-human being. Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. From the perspective of individual and public freedom, the prominent position of the divine mania in Greek society reflects its acceptance of the inborn human proclivity to experience alteration of consciousness, interpreted in positive terms as god-sent. These mental states were treated with cautious respect, and in contrast to the majority of complex societies, ancient and modern, were never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery.


Divination and Healing

Divination and Healing

Author: Michael Winkelman

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2022-08-23

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0816550573

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Divination is an important feature of cultures all over the world. While some may still question the efficacy of divination systems, they continue to serve their communities by diagnosing ailments, prescribing healing treatments, and solving problems. Yet despite their universality, there are relatively few comprehensive studies of divination systems. This volume seeks to fill this gap regarding the use of divination in healing. Here some of the world’s leading authorities draw on their own fieldwork and participation in ritual to present detailed case studies, demonstrating that divination rituals can have therapeutic effects. As the contributors examine the systems of knowledge that divination articulates and survey the varieties of divinatory experience, they seek to analyze divination as an epistemological system, as a social process, and as a therapeutic endeavor. While some of their findings reinforce traditional assumptions about the importance of social control, spirit relations, and community support in the divination process, the authors place these considerations within new epistemological frameworks that emphasize the use of alternative modes of knowing. In this wide-ranging volume, readers will find coverage of classic Ifa systems; Buddhist-influenced shamanic practices in the former Soviet Union; the reconciliation of Muslim beliefs and divinatory practices in Thailand; Native American divination used in diagnosis; Maya calendrical divination in Guatemala; mediumistic and chicken oracle divination among the Sukuma of Tanzania; Ndembu divination, focusing on the process of collective healing; and divination among the Samburu (Maasai) of Kenya, featuring dialogues from actual healing sessions. Together, these contributions argue for new perspectives on the study of divination that emphasize not only the epistemological roots of these systems but also their multifaceted therapeutic functions. Divination and Healing is a rich source of both data and insight for scholars of ritual, religion, medical anthropology, and the psychology of altered states of consciousness.


The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants

Author: Christian Rätsch

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2005-04-25

Total Pages: 3143

ISBN-13: 1594776628

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The most comprehensive guide to the botany, history, distribution, and cultivation of all known psychoactive plants • Examines 414 psychoactive plants and related substances • Explores how using psychoactive plants in a culturally sanctioned context can produce important insights into the nature of reality • Contains 797 color photographs and 645 black-and-white illustrations In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful plants--those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness--have traditionally been regarded as sacred. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them. The author begins with 168 of the most well-known psychoactives--such as cannabis, datura, and papaver--then presents 133 lesser known substances as well as additional plants known as “legal highs,” plants known only from mythological contexts and literature, and plant products that include substances such as ayahuasca, incense, and soma. The text is lavishly illustrated with 797 color photographs--many of which are from the author’s extensive fieldwork around the world--showing the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactives.