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Transcultural Psychiatry
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Discourses of Culture and Illness in South African Mental Health Care and Indigenous Healing, Part I: Western Psychiatric Power

Jeffery Yen

Rhodes UniversityJ.Yen{at}ru.ac.za

Lindy Wilbraham

University of NatalWilbrahamL{at}nu.ac.za

This discourse analytic study explores constructions of culture and illness in the talk of psychiatrists, psychologists and indigenous healers as they discuss possibilities for collaboration in South African mental health care. Versions of ‘culture’, and disputes over what constitutes ‘disorder’, are an important site for the negotiation of power relations between mental health practitioners and indigenous healers. The results of this study are presented in two parts. Part I explores discourses about western psychiatric/psychological professionalism, tensions in diagnosis between cultural relativism and psychiatric universalism, and how assertion of ‘cultural differences’ may be used to resist psychiatric power. Part II explores how discursive constructions of ‘African culture’ and ‘African madness’ work to marginalize indigenous healing in South African mental health care, despite repeated calls for collaboration.

Key Words: culture • discourse • indigenous healing • mental health care • South Africa

Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 40, No. 4, 542-561 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1363461503404005
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