Anthropology and psychotherapy have a long and important historical relationship, and in this fascinating collection practitioners with experience in both fields explore how the concept of ‘culture’ is deployed to guide and frame contemporary therapeutic theory, training and practice. This task is particularly important as the global spread of psychotherapy, as both an outgrowth of and a potential point of critique to globalised hyper-capitalism, requires us to think differently about how to conceptualise cultural difference in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, Anthropology and the Work of Culture provides a valuable resource for psychotherapeutic professionals working in a world in which cultural difference appears in fluid and transient moments. It will also provide essential reading for students and researchers working across the fields of psychotherapy and anthropology.
This innovative book provides therapists with a practical guide for treating patients from other cultures. Basing her material on extensive clinical work with patients from many ethnic backgrounds, Dr. Seeley shares insights on the problems of using a second language, recognizing cultural material presented in sessions, and making specific changes in clinical practice to accommodate cultural differences. This is a timely and well-conceived model of psychotherapy that enhances cross-cultural clinical work.
Within the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culture and mental health relationships. This interest has extended across many academic and professional disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health and social work, and has resulted in many books and scientific papers emphasizing the role of sociocultural factors in the etiology, epidemiology, manifestation and treatment of mental disorders. It is now evident that sociocultural variables are inextricably linked to all aspects of both normal and abnormal human behavior. But, in spite of the massive accumulation of data regarding culture and mental health relationships, sociocultural factors have still not been incorporated into existing biological and psychological perspectives on mental disorder and therapy. Psychiatry, the Western medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, has for the most part continued to ignore socio-cultural factors in its theoretical and applied approaches to the problem. The major reason for this is psychiatry's continued commitment to a disease conception of mental disorder which assumes that mental disorders are largely biologically-caused illnesses which are universally represented in etiology and manifestation. Within this perspective, mental disorders are regarded as caused by universal processes which lead to discrete and recognizable symptoms regardless of the culture in which they occur. However, this perspective is now the subject of growing criticism and debate.
`This is an important book which has a broader relevance to psychotherapists than its title suggests. In an academically rigorous style... and drawing on her own experience as an anthropologist and systemic (family) therapist, Inga-Britt Krause shows how ethnographic methodology (fieldwork) and its research findings can be drawn on to radically deepen our clinical insight into "difference"... Krause is both challenging and refreshing in her approach. She goes beyond asserting the need for insights to be gleaned from anthropology in cross-cultural clinical work to suggest that psychoanalysis itself could also benefit... Thinking about her book has focused my interest in the cultural dimensions of clinical work, and in the role of kinship, ta
Emotional, as well as physical distress, is a heritage from our hominid ancestors; it has been experienced by every group of human beings since our emergence as a species. And every known culture has developed systems of conceptualization and intervention for addressing it. The editors have brought together leading psychologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, and others to consider the interaction of psychosocial, biological, and cultural variables as they influence the assessment of health and illness and the course of therapy. The volume includes broadly conceived theoretical and survey chapters; detailed descriptions of specific healing traditions in Asia, the Americas, Africa, and the Arab world. The Handbook of Culture, Therapy, and Healing is a unique resource, containing information about Western therapies practiced in non-Western cultures, non-Western therapies practiced both in their own context and in the West.
Cultural diversity has always been a fact of life, nowhere more so than in the unique melting pot of U.S. society. Respecting and understanding that diversity is an important -- and challenging -- goals. Culture and Psychotherapy: A Guide to Clinical Practice brings us closer to that goal by offering a fresh perspective on how to bring an understanding of cultural diversity to the practice of psychotherapy to improve treatment outcomes. This remarkable work presents the nuts and bolts of incorporating culture into therapy, in a way that is immediately useful and practical. Illustrated by numerous case studies that demonstrate issues, techniques, and recommendations, the topics in this wide-ranging volume focus not on specific race or ethnicity but instead on culture. Introduction -- Summarizes the influence of culture (an abstract concept defined as an entity apart from race, ethnicity, or minority) on the practice and process of psychotherapy while offering a broadened definition of psychotherapy as a special practice involving a designated healer (or therapist) and identified client (or patient) to solve a client's problem or promote a client's mental health Case Presentations and Analysis -- Illustrates distinctive cultural issues and overtones within psychotherapy, such as the traditional Japanese respect for authority figures, the Native American concept of spirit songs, the clash of modern values with traditional Islamic codes, and the effects of the conflict between Eastern values of dependence and group harmony and Western values of independence and autonomy Specific Issues in Therapy -- Discusses lessons from folk healing, the cultural aspects of the therapist-patient relationship, and the giving and receiving of medication as part of therapy Treating Special Populations -- Presents issues and trauma faced by African Americans, Hispanic veterans, Southeast Asian refugees, adolescents, and the ethnic minority elderly Special Models of Therapy -- Shows the interplay between cultural issues and specific models of therapy, including marital therapy for intercultural couples and group therapy with multiethnic members The relevance of cultural diversity will only grow stronger in the coming years as our definition of community expands to embrace global -- not just local -- issues. With its balanced combination of clinical guidance and conceptual discussion highlighted by fascinating case studies, this volume, authored by national and international experts, offers psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric residents, psychiatric nurses, and mental health social workers -- both in the U.S. and abroad -- an expansive focus and richness of content unmatched elsewhere in the literature.
When Rebecca Lester was eleven years old—and again when she was eighteen—she almost died from anorexia nervosa. Now both a tenured professor in anthropology and a licensed social worker, she turns her ethnographic and clinical gaze to the world of eating disorders—their history, diagnosis, lived realities, treatment, and place in the American cultural imagination. Famished, the culmination of over two decades of anthropological and clinical work, as well as a lifetime of lived experience, presents a profound rethinking of eating disorders and how to treat them. Through a mix of rich cultural analysis, detailed therapeutic accounts, and raw autobiographical reflections, Famished helps make sense of why people develop eating disorders, what the process of recovery is like, and why treatments so often fail. It’s also an unsparing condemnation of the tension between profit and care in American healthcare, demonstrating how a system set up to treat a disease may, in fact, perpetuate it. Fierce and vulnerable, critical and hopeful, Famished will forever change the way you understand eating disorders and the people who suffer with them.
this book focuses on cross-cultural relationships and examines how culture and racial factors manifest in the clinical setting. It discusses on how to work with both cross-cultural differentiation and integration.
