Robert B. Edgerton

A Traditional African Psychiatrist

Accounts of African ethnopsychiatry have typically emphasized suggestion and the placebo effect. In the following account of a Hehe traditional psychiatrist from Tanzania, these considerations are important, but of equal importance is his emphasis upon botanical and pharmacological empiricism. Despite the fact that his epistemology of mental illness is developed within a belief system that emphasizes witchcraft and moral magic, and although he has become expert in dealing with such supernatural considerations, he is primarily a pragmatic psychopharmacologist. His devotion to empiricism in botany and pharmacology, while unusual among his people, may nevertheless have historical antecedents among the Hehe, and may be more common throughout African ethnopsychiatry than has yet been recognized. This African psychiatrist--like so many of the men who built Western psychiatry--serves to remind us that even within a supernatural belief system the beginnings of science may emerge.

Traditional treatment for mental illness in Africa: A review

The publication of The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire (University of California Press) by John M. Janzen (with the collaboration of William Arkinstall), and African Therapeutic Systems (Crossroads Press), edited by Z. A. Ademuwagun, John A. A. Ayoade, Ira E. Harrison and Dennis M. Warren, calls attention to recent research findings which indicate that mentally ill persons, particularly schizophrenics, may recover more rapidly and fully in non-industrialized societies than they do in industrialized ones. The books by Janzen and Ademuwagen et al. will be examined as contributions to a growing body of information on native African therapeutic practices. Evidence relating to the apparently benign course of psychosis in Africa will be examined, and various explanations for this pattern will be evaluated. Finally, some guidelines for future research will be suggested.

Sexual Behavior Of The Arl Colony Chimpanzees

This is a report of studies of the sexual behavior of the ARL Colony chimpanzees from July, 1966, through August, 1967. The ARL Colony has an innovation designated the DPS Chimpanzee Consortium which permits the containment of social groups of chimpanzees on 30 acres of New Mexico desert. The solicitation, mounting and copulatory behavior of the consortium animals was similar in form to that reported in field studies. However, the incidence of both copulatory and masturbatory behavior was much higher than in the wild. In spite of this overall high incidence of copulatory behavior, three of the five adult males, who were cage-reared and presumably sex-segregated until maturity, were not observed to copulate when they had the opportunity to do so. However, they seemed to show no reduction in sexual drive. Two masturbated frequently and all three practiced perverse sexual acts. Both adolescent and juvenile males were interested in estrous females and actively solicited, mounted and copulated with them frequently. Three of the four adult consortium females tended to avoid copulation. However, this reluctance of adult females to copulate could be overcome by a large aggressive male and all of the adult consortium females became pregnant. It is hypothesized that feral-born but cage-reared, sex-segregated chimpanzees are capable of normal mating behavior if they are given an opportunity to experiment and learn before a critical period occurring during late adolescence and early adulthood. An adult who has passed this critical period is either unable to learn to copulate or to orient adequately toward an estrous female, although the sexual drive is manifested in masturbation and other ways. There was also a higher incidence of nonsexual mounting and presenting by consortium animals of both sexes than has been reported in the wild. The older females frequently “mothered” small juveniles, but most noteworthy was the fact that many male chimpanzees also interacted with small juveniles in a maternal-like manner. Unlike wild females, the consortium females frequently displayed aggressive dominance behavior toward males as well as other females. The consortium females were also the frequent victims of male aggression, which has been rarely noted in the field. Hypotheses to explain these apparent gender role shifts are offered.

Tattooing and Identity

Tattooing was known as early as 2,000 B.C. in Egypt, and it may have begun as much as 2,000 years earlier in that area.~l8> Tattooing was practised in Libya by 1,330 B.C., in China by 1,100 B.C., and in Japan by 600 B.C. It was also present in the New World in early pre-Colombian times. In terms of geographical distribution tattooing is (or was at the time of European contact) nearly universal. The only area of skin surface which was not regularly tattooed in at least one known society appears to be the soles of the feet.

Anthropology and mental retardation: research approaches and opportunities

Although mental retardation is largely a sociocultural phenomenon, anthropological interest in this field has been slow to develop. In recent years, anthropological concepts and methods have been used in study of the community adaptation of mentally retarded persons and societal reactions to them. As an illustration, research developments at the Mental Retardation Research Center, UCLA, are discussed. The need for expanded, collaborative research by social and biomedical scientists is examined. The research puzzles include the links between poverty, ethnicity, schools, families and mental retardation, as well as the nature of intelligence and adaptation.

Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military

* Introduction * The Crucible of ConflictNortheast Asia * The Boxer RebellionJapan in the Worlds Eyes * And Where May Japan Happen to Be? * Brute Force, Anguish, and Humiliation * You Can Keep Tokyo for Yourself * To Hell with Babe Ruth * Remember Pearl Harbor * Not Necessarily to Our Advantage * From Chivalry to Brutality

Sterilized mental defectives look at eugenic sterilization.

The popular assumption that mental defectives accept if not welcome sterilization is challenged. Data were collected for a more general follow-up study of 110 patients discharged from Pacific State Hospital from June 1949 to June 1958. The vast majority had intelligence quotients over 50 and all were over 20 years of age. Eugenic sterilization is performed at a time when the patients are considered incompetent. After they are released it is assumed they are competent and capable of self-support. Their reactions to sterilization the one remaining and indelible mark of their previous incompetent status are considered of more than ethical importance: they are of theoretical and empirical value in assessment of sterilization as it hinders or facilitates the patients adjustment to the community when finally discharged. The results indicate that a little over two-thirds (68%) disapproved of the sterilization and only about one-fifth approved. There were marked sex differences: 35% of the men approved but only 9% of the women did. Married persons were much more likely to be opposed than the unmarried. Women particularly the married were most likely to object and men especially single the least. Sterilization was accepted as preventing birth of babies who could not be properly taken care of or facilitating sexual freedom. Objection was based on the operation making it difficult for the patient to pass as normal and preventing fulfillment of a strong desire for parenthood. For many patients sterilization may be closely identified with mortification and degradation of institutionalization. For some there may be ambiguities acceptance on an intellectual basis but rejection on an emotional one.

A Case of Delabeling: Some Practical and Theoretical Implications

One of the phenomena associated with deinstitutionalization is the official delabeling of persons previously labeled “mentally retarded”. Delabeling commonly occurs when someone previously diagnosed, labeled and sometimes receiving services as a mentally retarded person, seeks new or additional services from some component of the mental retardation community service delivery system. When such a person is evaluated, or reevaluated, by a Regional Center or another agency and is found to have an I.Q. above that required for eligibility, the label “mentally retarded” may be replaced by another, such as “schizophrenic” or “learning handicapped” or the label may simply be expunged and the erstwhile mentally retarded person may be declared to be of borderline or average intelligence. As a result of this process of delabeling, and contrary to established belief, a person may be mentally retarded one day and not mentally retarded the next.

Cross‐cultural psychology and psychological anthropology: One paradigm or two?

Richard W. Brislin, Walter J. Lonner and Robert M. Thorndike. Cross‐Cultural Research Methods. New York John Wiley & Sons, 1973. v + 351 pp. Tables, charts, bibliography, and index.

Warrior Women: The Amazons of Dahomey and the Nature of War

16.95. Harry C. Triandis, in association with Vasso Vassiliou Yasumasa Tanaka and A. V. Shanmugam. The Analysis of Subjective Culture. A Volume in Comparative Studies in Behavioral Science: A Wiley Series, edited by Robert T. Holt and John E. Turner. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972. v + 382 pp. Tables, charts, and index.