Module ANTH3707: ANTHROPOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS

Department: Anthropology

ANTH3707: ANTHROPOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This course aims to study the related issues of mental health, illness, intervention and use of psychotropic substances from a cross-cultural perspective.

Content

• Anthropological approaches to personality and consciousness.
• Mental health and mental illness, a continuum?.
• Colonial psychiatry, ethnopsychiatry and cross-cultural psychiatry.
• Culture-bound syndromes - from exotocism to global phenomena.
• Current biomedical approaches to mental illness - typologies and disorders in DSM.
• Race and psychiatry.
• Healing cultures.
• Therapeutic institutions in a comparative perspective.
• Dreaming in human societies.
• Cultural conceptualization of the 'unconscious'.
• Shamanism, spirit possession and spiritual healing.
• Trance and altered states of consciousness.
• Concepts of mental health and mental illness among the Semai/Senoi.
• Sacramental, recreational and therapeutic use of substances.
• Ethnobotany. Drugs, licit and illicit.
• Trauma, combat trauma and PTSD.
• Neuropharmacology. Depression and bipolar disorders.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will: gain an understanding of the interrelationship between different cultural conceptualisations of self and consciousness, what constitutes sanity and madness in different contexts and their associated historical and current healing practices.
• Gain knowledge of and insight into the Western psychiatric approach and classifications of mental disorders, their treatment and their social implications in the different contexts.
• Gain an appreciation of an anthropological critical approach to understanding issues of mental health and mental illness in a cross-cultural perspective.
• Gain an understanding of the cultural, political, economic, biological and pharmacological aspects of using psychotropic substances and drugs, from a cross-cultural perspective.

• Apply key concepts and methods of medical anthropology in relation to mental health issues.
• Read and understand key medical anthropological texts in mental health matters.
• Gain insight into the cross-cultural use of substances.

• Teamwork: The group presentation requires teamwork in its preparation.
• Communication: The formative assessment is a group-based presentation which develops communication skills in the group context.
• Cross-cultural sensitivity: The module's focus on, in part, non-Western cultures' experience of self, mental health issues and drug use, generates an appreciation of other cultures' world views and experiential life worlds with respect to these topics.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures Module leader will introduce key issues, provide theoretical perspectives and draw on ethnographic case studies on mental health, illness, intervention and use of psychotropic substances from a cross-cultural perspective. The selected topics will highlight the experiential dimensions of mental health and illness in cross-cultural perspective.
• Tutorials Students will prepare by reading the material suggested on the course outline, which they will discuss during seminars. Students will be organised in small groups that will lead the discussion by using a short presentation of the material for the designated seminar. General seminar discussions follow and will provide an opportunity to evaluate critically and assess a range of approaches on the anthropological study of mental health and illness. Students will prepare individual and group presentations engaging with current debates and research and will gain practice in presenting relevant materials to others and in learning collaboratively.
• Coursework Formative: Presentations used during seminars constitute part of the formative assessment. These are integrated with a 500 words essay plan. Students will conduct some preliminary research documenting a topic of their choice among those discussed during the module. Building on their research the proposal should identify a clear problem in the Anthropology o Mental Health and Illness, raise critical research questions and discuss the relevant literature. Verbal feedback on student presentations / discussions within seminars will also help students to sharpen their communication and critical evaluation skills.
• Summative: Essay of 3,000 words. The essay topic will be chosen specifically to encourage students to engage with both the theoretical approaches discussed throughout the course and a wide range of ethnographic case studies. Summative assessment by essay formally tests the skills developed throughout the course. The essay will test the ability to plan a substantial piece of work, identifying and retrieving sources and selecting and displaying appropriate subject specific knowledge and understanding, and cross-cultural sensitivity in relation to anthropological critical approaches to mental health issues. It further tests the ability to develop an extended discussion which utilises concepts and examines competing interpretation and analysis. It also develops key skills in sustaining effective written communication and information presentation to high scholarly standards. It enables students to demonstrate that they have sufficient subject knowledge to meet the assessment criteria, that they have achieved the subject skills and that they have acquired the module’s key skills. In particular, summative essays test the acquisition of knowledge through independent learning and the ability to apply it in critical argument in relation to a specific question. They furthermore help students to develop time management skills by working to a deadline, as well as the ability to seek out and critically use relevant data sources.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Presentation with accompanying 500 word essay plan.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University