In this first history of psychiatry in colonial Africa, Jock McCulloch describes the clinical approaches of well-known European practitioners, including Frantz Fanon and Wulf Sachs. They operated independently of one another.Yet, despite their differences,they shared a coherent set of ideas about 'the African Mind', based on the colonial notion of African inferiority.By exploring the association between settler ideology and psychiatric research, this study examines colonial science as a system of knowledge and power.
First published in 1937, "Black Hamlet" is a chronicle of physician Wulf Sachs' experiences psychoanalysing a man from a Johannesburg slum for two-and-a-half years. Originally an attempt to learn whether psychoanalysis was applicable across different cultures, Sachs' findings became so much more. "Black Hamlet" is a narrative reconstruction of one black South African's life as two worlds collide. Critically acclaimed when first published, this fascinating book will appeal to those with an interest in psychology and psychoanalysis, and it is not to be missed by collectors of related literature. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in a modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.
Nineteenth-century French writers and travelers imagined Muslim colonies in North Africa to be realms of savage violence, lurid sexuality, and primitive madness. Colonial Madness traces the genealogy and development of this idea from the beginnings of colonial expansion to the present, revealing the ways in which psychiatry has been at once a weapon in the arsenal of colonial racism, an innovative branch of medical science, and a mechanism for negotiating the meaning of difference for republican citizenship. Drawing from extensive archival research and fieldwork in France and North Africa, Richard Keller offers much more than a history of colonial psychology. Colonial Madness explores the notion of what French thinkers saw as an inherent mental, intellectual, and behavioral rift marked by the Mediterranean, as well as the idea of the colonies as an experimental space freed from the limitations of metropolitan society and reason. These ideas have modern relevance, Keller argues, reflected in French thought about race and debates over immigration and France’s postcolonial legacy.
'Psychiatry and Empire' brings together scholars in the History of Medicine and Colonialism to explore questions of race, gender and power relations in former colonial states across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific. The volume advances our understanding of the rise of modern psychiatry as it collided with the psychology of colonial rule.
"Lobengula's wives lived here" : the colonization of space and meaning and the birth of the asylum in Southern Rhodesia -- Bodies in custody : Ingutsheni Lunatic Asylum, 1908-1933 -- Black men, white "civilization," and routes to Ingutsheni -- Women interrupted : traveling women, anxious men, and ascriptions of madness -- Psychiatric modernity in black and white, 1933-1942 -- The Africans do not complain : the monologue of reason about madness at Ingutsheni, 1942-1968.
Weaving sound historical research with rich ethnographic insight, An Impossible Inheritance tells the story of the emergence, disavowal, and afterlife of a distinctive project in transcultural psychiatry initiated at the Fann Psychiatric Clinic in Dakar, Senegal during the 1960s and 1970s. Today’s clinic remains haunted by its past and Katie Kilroy-Marac brilliantly examines the complex forms of memory work undertaken by its affiliates over a sixty year period. Through stories such as that of the the ghost said to roam the clinic’s halls, the mysterious death of a young doctor sometimes attributed to witchcraft, and the spirit possession ceremonies that may have taken place in Fann’s courtyard, Kilroy-Marac argues that memory work is always an act of the imagination and a moral practice with unexpected temporal, affective, and political dimensions. By exploring how accounts about the Fann Psychiatric Clinic and its past speak to larger narratives of postcolonial and neoliberal transformation, An Impossible Inheritance examines the complex relationship between memory, history, and power within the institution and beyond.
At its zenith in the early twentieth century, the British Empire ruled nearly one-quarter of the world’s inhabitants. As they worked to exercise power in diverse and distant cultures, British authorities relied to a surprising degree on the science of mind. Ruling Minds explores how psychology opened up new possibilities for governing the empire. From the mental testing of workers and soldiers to the use of psychoanalysis in development plans and counterinsurgency strategy, psychology provided tools for measuring and managing the minds of imperial subjects. But it also led to unintended consequences. Following researchers, missionaries, and officials to the far corners of the globe, Erik Linstrum examines how they used intelligence tests, laboratory studies, and even dream analysis to chart abilities and emotions. Psychology seemed to offer portable and standardized forms of knowledge that could be applied to people everywhere. Yet it also unsettled basic assumptions of imperial rule. Some experiments undercut the racial hierarchies that propped up British dominance. Others failed to realize the orderly transformation of colonized societies that experts promised and officials hoped for. Challenging our assumptions about scientific knowledge and empire, Linstrum shows that psychology did more to expose the limits of imperial authority than to strengthen it.
Mind Matters: A Resource Guide to Psychiatry for Black Communities The purpose of this book is to be a useful resource for individuals and families affected by mental illness. The book focuses on Black communities due to the specific needs and issues of mental health in this population. These issues include inequalities in care in most settings, cultural differences in how symptoms present, concerns and common myths about illnesses that affect the mind. Although this book is specific to the Black Community, it is a usable resource for anyone who is affected by mental illness or a family member who cares for them. The information contained in this book crosses culture and race. Understand that mental health is seen in all communities and may cause difficulties for patients and family members who love them. When one person suffers, the family and the entire village is affected and suffers along with him or her. We hope that by the end of this book, the reader will understand how mental illness affects the individual, the family, the home, the extended family, and collectively, the community. We anticipate that we can demystify psychiatry allowing people to know that mental disorders are not something to fear or ridicule. It is important that the public understands that these are medical disorders of the mind that are treatable. Sadly, so often people needlessly suffer. This book is written for the patients, families, community activists, social workers, police officers, paramedics, and first responders. It is a useful tool for individuals interested in mental health so that they can learn for themselves or take what they learn back to the community. This book is written so that it can be understandable and easily digestible for patients, families, and for just about anyone interested in mental health or psychiatry. The framework of the book is to discuss the most common psychiatric diagnoses. The intent is to be a brief, usable book for most people affected by or interested in mental health. This book is a basic resource for building an understanding for mental health. It is designed to be read cover to cover, but readers will also be able to go to specific chapters that pertain to them as individuals. This book is also useful for professionals who want to provide their patients with a resource for information and understanding of their diagnoses and what to expect in treatment and care.
In this book, Rebekah Lee offers a critical introduction to the diverse history of health, healing and illness in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1800s to the present day. Its focus is not simply on disease but rather on how illness and health were understood and managed: by healthcare providers, African patients, their families and communities. Through a sustained interdisciplinary approach, Lee brings to the foreground a cast of actors, institutions and ideas that both profoundly and intimately shaped African health experiences and outcomes. This book guides the reader through a wide range of historical source material, and highlights the theoretical and methodological innovations which have enriched this scholarship. Part One delivers a concise historical overview of African health and illness from the long 'pre-colonial' past through the colonial period and into the present day, providing an understanding of broad patterns – of major disease challenges, experiences of illness, and local and global health interventions – and their persistence or transformation across time. Part Two adopts a 'case study' approach, focusing on specific health challenges in Africa – HIV/AIDS, mental illness, tropical disease and occupational disease – and their unfolding across time and space. Health, Healing and Illness in African History is the first wide-ranging survey of this key topic in African history and the history of health and medicine, and the ideal introduction for students.
