Description
This brief book introduces the ways in which contemporary anthropology engages with the "psych" disciplines: psychology, psychiatry, and medicine. Khan also widens the conversation by including the perspectives of epidemiologists, addiction and legal experts, journalists, filmmakers, activists, patients, and sufferers. New approaches to mental illness are situated in the context of historical, political, psychoanalytic, and postcolonial frameworks, allowing readers to understand how health, illness, normality, and abnormality are constructed and produced. Using case studies from a variety of regions, Khan explores what anthropologically informed psychology, psychiatry, and medicine can tell us about mental illness across cultures.
I would certainly use this book for teaching undergraduates and graduates. Khan should be commended for skillfully weaving her way through a minefield of debates, controversies, and the thorny and controverted discourses that clash between the professions. -- Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University Mental Disorder provides a valuable introduction to the central issues and concerns of the anthropology of psychiatry and mental health. Well-conceptualized discussion questions and carefully chosen ideas for further reading and viewing make the text a key pedagogical aid. -- Eugene Raikhel, University of Chicago
About the Author
Nichola Khan is a social and psychological anthropologist, a chartered psychologist, and Principal Lecturer, School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Brighton.
Book Information
ISBN 9781442635333
Author Nichola Khan
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 240g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 8mm
