Out of Place

Madness in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-85745-094-4
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 6, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 437 g

Reihe: Social Identities

The Kakoli of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), the focus of this study, did not traditionally have a concept of mental illness. They classified madness according to social behaviour, not mental pathology. Moreover, their conception of the person did not recognise the same physical and mental categories that inform Western medical science, and psychiatry in particular was not officially introduced to PNG until the late 1950s. Its practitioners claimed that it could adequately accommodate the cultural variation among Melanesian societies. This book compares the intent and practice of transcultural psychiatry with Kakoli interpretations of, and responses to, madness, showing the reasons for their occasional recourse to psychiatric services. Episodes involving madness, as defined by the Kakoli themselves, are described in order to offer a context for the historical lifeworld and praxis of the community and raise fundamental questions about whether a culturally sensitive psychiatry is possible in the Melanesian context.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Goddard, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Acknowledgement

Map

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Development of Psychiatry in Papua New Guinea

Chapter 2. Psychiatric Theory and Practice in Papua New Guinea

Chapter 3. Madness and the Ambivalent Use of Psychiatry in the KaugelValley

Chapter 4. Affliction and Madness

Chapter 5. The Social Construction of Madness: Lopa’s Season

Chapter 6. The Social Construction of Madness: The Mad Giant

Conclusion: In Anticipation of a Kakoli Ethnopsychiatry

Appendix A: Orthography

Appendix B: Glossary of Umbu Ungu Terms

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Goddard, Michael
Michael Goddard is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Macquarie University, Australia. He is the author of The Unseen City (2005) and Substantial Justice (2009).