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Ethnopsychiatry Henri F. Ellenberger

Ethnopsychiatry By Henri F. Ellenberger

Summary

What is the relationship between culture and mental health? Is mental illness universal? Are symptoms of mental disorders different across social groups? In the late 1960s these questions gave rise to a series of articles by Henri Ellenberger, presented here for the first time in English.

Ethnopsychiatry Summary

Ethnopsychiatry by Henri F. Ellenberger

What is the relationship between culture and mental health? Is mental illness universal? Are symptoms of mental disorders different across social groups? In the late 1960s these questions gave rise to a groundbreaking series of articles written by the psychiatrist Henri Ellenberger, who would go on to publish The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry in 1970. Fifty years later they are presented for the first time in English translation, introduced by historian of science Emmanuel Delille. Ethnopsychiatry explores one of the most controversial subjects in psychiatric research: the role of culture in mental health. In his articles Ellenberger addressed the complex clinical and theoretical problems of cultural specificity in mental illness, collective psychoses, differentiations within cultural groups, and biocultural interactions. He was especially attuned to the correlations between rapid cultural transformations in postwar society, urbanization, and the frequency of mental illness. Ellenberger drew from a vast and varied primary and secondary literature in several languages, as well as from his own findings in clinical practice, which included work with indigenous peoples. In analyzing Ellenberger's contributions Delille unveils the transnational and interdisciplinary origins of transcultural psychiatry, which grew out of knowledge networks that crisscrossed the globe. The book has a rich selection of appendices, including Ellenberger's lecture notes on a case of peyote addiction and his correspondence with anthropologist and psychoanalyst Georges Devereux. These original essays, and their masterful contextualization, provide a compelling introduction to the foundations of transcultural psychiatry and one of its most distinguished and prolific researchers.

Ethnopsychiatry Reviews

Ethnopsychiatry presents yet another dimension of Ellenberger's thought and calls for a reappraisal of his eclectic oeuvre. Moreover, with its emphasis on cultural values and local ways of life, the book provides real insight into the challenges involved when one takes up the imperative to consider cultural diversity in psychiatric practice. Ryan L. Allen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

About Henri F. Ellenberger

Henri F. Ellenberger (1905-1993) was a physician and a pioneering figure in transcultural psychiatry, criminology, and the history of medicine. Emmanuel Delille is an historian of science and a researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch. Jonathan Kaplansky is a literary translator. He lives in Montreal.

Additional information

NGR9780228003854
9780228003854
0228003857
Ethnopsychiatry by Henri F. Ellenberger
New
Paperback
McGill-Queen's University Press
2020-12-17
384
N/A
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