Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DECOLMAD (Decolonising madness? Transcultural psychiatry, international order and the birth of a global psyche in the aftermath of the Second World War)
Reporting period: 2022-02-01 to 2023-07-31
DECOLMAD is a transdisciplinary project which asks how psychiatrists, anthropologists and policy-makers from all over the world re-defined the relationship between culture, race and individual psyche in response to the Second World War and decolonisation. Its team of historians, anthropologists and clincial practitioners aims to contribute crucial insights to the debate on the universality and cross-cultural applications of the notions of mental health and illness by offering the first and inter-disciplinary account of the historical origins and development of the concept of ‘global psyche’ and transcultural psychiatry. It argues that, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the newly emerging global profession of transcultural psychiatry became one of the most important sites for redrawing the boundaries of humanity (and defining the concept of universal humanity), and for discussing some of the most pressing political and social issues of the time, such as migration, humanitarian intervention, modernisation and development, and decolonisation.
DECOLMAD zooms in on the decolonisation processes, exploring why such a large number of mid-20th-century psychiatrists were so keen to determine how cultural environments shaped the basic traits of human psychology. Moreover, it engages with the multiple voices - Nigerian, Lebanese, Yugoslav, Chilean, Soviet, Indian - which took part in these discussions and in the making of postcolonial global 'psy' disciplines. How did the global South and East European participants shape the field, how did they grapple with its colonial and racist aspects, and why does their role now seem to be so radically diminished?
DECOLMAD poses the following questions: Can psychiatry be global? Are mental illnesses universal across cultures, ethnic groups and 'civilisations'? In the current international context of major humanitarian crises and mass refugee movements, it is extremely important to explore to what extent mental health principles can be translated and globalised. Moreover, Europe is currently facing the largest number of incoming refugees since the Second World War, and their mental health is quickly becoming one of the core political concerns on the continent – this project thus contributes directly to the question which is foremost on the agendas of most European governments: can Western psychiatric systems and therapies help alleviate the suffering and improve the lives of people from different parts of the world? Moreover, the WHO and the WPA have in the recent years insisted on 'scaling up' mental health provisions in the global South, and have pushed for standardising and universalising psychiatric classifications, diagnoses and treatments. At the same time, they have spoken of the need to deliver 'culturally appropriate' mental health and social care. But currently there is no clear definition of what 'culturally appropriate' might mean in this context, and how it might clash with the WHO's globalising agenda. Discussions about how to devise transnational mental health programmes and implement psychiatric policies globally have enormous economic and political implications, and DECOLMAD intervenes directly in these complex contemporary debates.
DECOLMAD zooms in on the decolonisation processes, exploring why such a large number of mid-20th-century psychiatrists were so keen to determine how cultural environments shaped the basic traits of human psychology. Moreover, it engages with the multiple voices - Nigerian, Lebanese, Yugoslav, Chilean, Soviet, Indian - which took part in these discussions and in the making of postcolonial global 'psy' disciplines. How did the global South and East European participants shape the field, how did they grapple with its colonial and racist aspects, and why does their role now seem to be so radically diminished?
DECOLMAD poses the following questions: Can psychiatry be global? Are mental illnesses universal across cultures, ethnic groups and 'civilisations'? In the current international context of major humanitarian crises and mass refugee movements, it is extremely important to explore to what extent mental health principles can be translated and globalised. Moreover, Europe is currently facing the largest number of incoming refugees since the Second World War, and their mental health is quickly becoming one of the core political concerns on the continent – this project thus contributes directly to the question which is foremost on the agendas of most European governments: can Western psychiatric systems and therapies help alleviate the suffering and improve the lives of people from different parts of the world? Moreover, the WHO and the WPA have in the recent years insisted on 'scaling up' mental health provisions in the global South, and have pushed for standardising and universalising psychiatric classifications, diagnoses and treatments. At the same time, they have spoken of the need to deliver 'culturally appropriate' mental health and social care. But currently there is no clear definition of what 'culturally appropriate' might mean in this context, and how it might clash with the WHO's globalising agenda. Discussions about how to devise transnational mental health programmes and implement psychiatric policies globally have enormous economic and political implications, and DECOLMAD intervenes directly in these complex contemporary debates.
DECOLMAD has developed along several major thematic lines.
It has explored the concept of psychiatric universality and the role it played in global psychiatry's attempts to distance itself from its erstwhile colonial and explicitly racist frameworks. DECOLMAD has interrogated to what extent these attempts at decolonisation were successful, and explored the persistence of colonial legacies in the theoretical frameworks and practice of postcolonial transcultural psychiatry (and present-day global mental health). The project team developed a critical historical account of universalism as a progressive political tool which could nevertheless reinforce Eurocentric and colonial-era tendencies in psychiatric research and practice. This has tied into a more wide-ranging analysis of colonial continuities and ruptures in the context of global psy disciplines and the global mental health movement.
DECOLMAD has also explored the interplay between global and local concepts and frameworks of knowledge production in different parts of the world, demonstrating how so-called global 'peripheries' (decolonising territories, socialist Eastern Europe, Latin America etc.) produced innovative intellectual contributions to global debates in the field of postcolonial psychiatry and medicine, and often played a crucial role in the making of global disciplines (instead of merely importing and adapting Western knowledge). The DECOLMAD team has produced in-depth analyses of the impact of global psychiatry and medicine in a variety of societies outside the Western world, emphasizing the complex processes of exchange, translation, adaptation and epistemological agency in cross-cultural contexts, thereby offering carefully researched and historically grounded perspectives on debates around the universal validity of psychiatric concepts and therapies. The project has engaged in writing the history of the creation of new international languages of psychiatry - but has offered an original perspective on this process by moving beyond major global institutions and Western medical experts and organizations.
In addition to including the voices of experts from outside the Western world, DECOLMAD has aimed to explore untapped sources in psychiatric archives, such as hospital patient case files and patients' writings, which has made it possible for us to explore the role of patients, their families as well as other non-medical actors in negotiations related to psychiatric diagnoses and cross-cultural applications of psychiatric concepts.
Finally, DECOLMAD's work has demonstrated that debates in postcolonial transcultural psychiatry had an enormous impact on the way in which cross-cultural migration was conceptualised in political discussions in the aftermath of decolonisation. The project has explored how cross-cultural exchange and migration were systematically linked with psychopathology, and regularly defined as potential sources of mental illness, and it has analysed how this complex history has shaped contemporary psychiatric understanding of and public attitudes towards migration.
DECOLMAD has so far produced one monograph, one edited special issue of the journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, and nine peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters.
It has explored the concept of psychiatric universality and the role it played in global psychiatry's attempts to distance itself from its erstwhile colonial and explicitly racist frameworks. DECOLMAD has interrogated to what extent these attempts at decolonisation were successful, and explored the persistence of colonial legacies in the theoretical frameworks and practice of postcolonial transcultural psychiatry (and present-day global mental health). The project team developed a critical historical account of universalism as a progressive political tool which could nevertheless reinforce Eurocentric and colonial-era tendencies in psychiatric research and practice. This has tied into a more wide-ranging analysis of colonial continuities and ruptures in the context of global psy disciplines and the global mental health movement.
DECOLMAD has also explored the interplay between global and local concepts and frameworks of knowledge production in different parts of the world, demonstrating how so-called global 'peripheries' (decolonising territories, socialist Eastern Europe, Latin America etc.) produced innovative intellectual contributions to global debates in the field of postcolonial psychiatry and medicine, and often played a crucial role in the making of global disciplines (instead of merely importing and adapting Western knowledge). The DECOLMAD team has produced in-depth analyses of the impact of global psychiatry and medicine in a variety of societies outside the Western world, emphasizing the complex processes of exchange, translation, adaptation and epistemological agency in cross-cultural contexts, thereby offering carefully researched and historically grounded perspectives on debates around the universal validity of psychiatric concepts and therapies. The project has engaged in writing the history of the creation of new international languages of psychiatry - but has offered an original perspective on this process by moving beyond major global institutions and Western medical experts and organizations.
In addition to including the voices of experts from outside the Western world, DECOLMAD has aimed to explore untapped sources in psychiatric archives, such as hospital patient case files and patients' writings, which has made it possible for us to explore the role of patients, their families as well as other non-medical actors in negotiations related to psychiatric diagnoses and cross-cultural applications of psychiatric concepts.
Finally, DECOLMAD's work has demonstrated that debates in postcolonial transcultural psychiatry had an enormous impact on the way in which cross-cultural migration was conceptualised in political discussions in the aftermath of decolonisation. The project has explored how cross-cultural exchange and migration were systematically linked with psychopathology, and regularly defined as potential sources of mental illness, and it has analysed how this complex history has shaped contemporary psychiatric understanding of and public attitudes towards migration.
DECOLMAD has so far produced one monograph, one edited special issue of the journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, and nine peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters.
DECOLMAD has introduced the history and anthropology of postcolonial transcultural psychiatry as a genuinely interdisciplinary and transnational field of study, based on a variety of rich and diverse sources, and has established its importance well beyond the clinical framework. DECOLMAD's researchers have drawn attention to the crucial significance of transcultural psychiatry for understanding both the history of decolonisation and the current global mental health movement. Our research has demonstrated that postcolonial discussions about the 'global psyche' and relationship between culture and mind were not merely relevant for clinical practice and theory, but addressed and debated some of the most important political issues of the post-Second World War world.
DECOLMAD has, furthermore, decentred the history of transcultural psychiatry, and demonstrated the importance of experts, patients and institutions from outside the Western world. In our publications, research activities, events and other dissemination efforts, we have explored the enormous role of Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American and East European actors and contexts in the making of global transcultural psychiatry, and in politically salient debates around global psyche and universal humanity in the second half of the 20th century. In that sense, DECOLMAD has offered a completely new approach to the global history of psy discipline and medicine in the age of decolonisation.
Moreover, DECOLMAD has developed a sustained collaboration between humanities, social sciences and clinical research agendas, and strove to engage present-day transcultural psychiatrists in these important historical and anthropological debates. Our partnerships with leading cross-cultural psychiatric institutions around the world have aimed to demonstrate that, without understanding the historical origins of transcultural psychiatry, one could not engage in critical and informed ways with current challenges and questions facing global mental health.
In the remainder of the project, DECOLMAD will work on strengthening and concretizing such cross-disciplinary collaborations (by emphasizing co-writing and co-organization of events and other dissemination activities). Moreover, DECOLMAD team members are currently completing monographs (three in total) as well as an edited volume, which will, by the end of the prokect, offer systematic, inter-disciplinary and innovative analyses of the above-mentioned core themes in relation to the global history of schizophrenia and decolonisation, the role of Middle Eastern experts and patients in the making of modern psychiatry, and the role of Latin American perspectives present-day mental health discussions about migration and pathology.
DECOLMAD has, furthermore, decentred the history of transcultural psychiatry, and demonstrated the importance of experts, patients and institutions from outside the Western world. In our publications, research activities, events and other dissemination efforts, we have explored the enormous role of Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin American and East European actors and contexts in the making of global transcultural psychiatry, and in politically salient debates around global psyche and universal humanity in the second half of the 20th century. In that sense, DECOLMAD has offered a completely new approach to the global history of psy discipline and medicine in the age of decolonisation.
Moreover, DECOLMAD has developed a sustained collaboration between humanities, social sciences and clinical research agendas, and strove to engage present-day transcultural psychiatrists in these important historical and anthropological debates. Our partnerships with leading cross-cultural psychiatric institutions around the world have aimed to demonstrate that, without understanding the historical origins of transcultural psychiatry, one could not engage in critical and informed ways with current challenges and questions facing global mental health.
In the remainder of the project, DECOLMAD will work on strengthening and concretizing such cross-disciplinary collaborations (by emphasizing co-writing and co-organization of events and other dissemination activities). Moreover, DECOLMAD team members are currently completing monographs (three in total) as well as an edited volume, which will, by the end of the prokect, offer systematic, inter-disciplinary and innovative analyses of the above-mentioned core themes in relation to the global history of schizophrenia and decolonisation, the role of Middle Eastern experts and patients in the making of modern psychiatry, and the role of Latin American perspectives present-day mental health discussions about migration and pathology.