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 clinical practitioners has contributed 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 has demonstrated 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 has produced a solid and groundbreaking body of knowledge in the fields of history and anthropology of transcultural psychiatry, as well as in the history of decolonisation. It has demonstrated the importance of conceptualising the Global South as a site of original knowledge production: DECOLMAD's team offered systematic historical and anthropological accounts concerning the development and decolonisation of transcultural psychiatry in under-researched parts of the world, such as MENA, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and showed that they played a very significant role in the making of global psychiatry and medicine. Moreover, DECOLMAD's research emphasized the importance of historical perspective and insights for understanding present-day concerns and challenges in transcultural psychiatry and global mental health, and pioneered a model for collaboration between critical humanities and psychiatric clinics.
