Tense Past provides a much needed appraisal and contextualization of the upsurge of interest in questions of memory and trauma evident in multiple personality and post-traumatic stress disorders, child abuse, and commemoration of the Holocaust. Contributors examine the historical origins of memory in psychiatric discourse and show its connection to broader developments in Western science and medicine. They address the new links between trauma and memory, and they explore how memory shapes the way traumatic events are put into narrative form. They also consider the social and political contexts in which sufferers speak and remember.

About the Author

Paul Antze teaches in the Division of Social Science and in the Graduate Programs in Anthropology and Social and Political Thought at York University, Toronto. MichaelLambek is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Human Spiritis: A CulturalAccount of Trace in Mayotte and Knowledge and Practice inMayotte: Local Discourses of Islam, Sorcery, and SpiritPossession.

Reviews

"Highly recommended for social workers and for practitioners in related fields." -- The Social Worker
"The book represents a milestone in studies of memory in giving a much-needed cross-cultural perspective on the field , in a way at the same time is sensitive to psychological and historical approaches." -- Anthropologica, XLIII (2001).

Book Information
ISBN 9780415915632
Author Paul Antze
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 560g