Mental Health of Man in Africa*

Lambo, T. Adeoye

doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097310

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…As pointed out by a pioneer psychiatrist, Lambo (1982), it is impossible to speak of a single African situation, as the continent contains a broad range of cultures. Yet the basis of most African value systems is the concept of the 'unity' of life and time.…”

Section: Psychotherapy In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture and Psychotherapy: Review and Practical Guidelines

Tseng

1999

Transcult Psychiatry

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In this overview, the subject of culture and psychotherapy is considered broadly from five perspectives: (i) culture-embedded indigenous healing practices, (ii) culture-influenced ‘unique’ psychotherapies, (iii) cultural elements in ‘mainstream’ therapies, (iv) the practice of psychotherapy in different societies, and (v) intercultural psychotherapy. Various modes of therapy are compared with respect to their basic orientations, techniques and mechanisms of therapy. Culture-relevant psychotherapy requires technical adjustment, theoretical modifications and philosophical reconsideration. Practical suggestions are made regarding areas that need attention in order to conduct culturally appropriate psychotherapy.

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Section: Psychotherapy In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture and Psychotherapy: Review and Practical Guidelines

Tseng

1999

Transcult Psychiatry

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“…This portrait certainly suggests a setting likely to produce Oedipal conflicts. However, available literature discouraged the application of any such psychodynamic concepts in the Nigerian setting (Leighton et al, 1968;Lambo, 1984). The case presented in the next section involved a man from the same ethnic group described by Binitie.…”

Section: Incest and The Oedipus Complex In Cross-cultural Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature more often reports failure to benefit from psychodynamic therapies by non-western peoples (Leighton, Prince & May, 1968;Prince, 1996). However, syncretic approaches are often endorsed (Beiser, 1984;Lambo, 1984). Morakinyo (1982) has reported clinical experience adapting Yoruba folklore in a Jungian dynamic approach.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oedipal Anxiety and Cultural Variations in the Incest Taboo: A Psychotherapy Case Study in the Nigerian Setting

Ilechukwu

1999

Transcult Psychiatry

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This paper reports the highlights of long-term dynamic psychotherapy with an African. The case is presented of a 34-year-old Nigerian exarmy officer with the onset of panic symptoms following the death of a neighbor. This event was found to symbolize the core of his conflicts. Therapy revealed ongoing conflict with his father, with peers at work and in his marriage. There were also violations of the incest taboos in his extended and polygamous family. The psychotherapeutic process is delineated with special reference to Oedipal components. The following variations are discussed: (i) the impact of a cultural setting which enforced infancy/early childhood domicile with mother, separate sleeping quarters for the father, and later separation of all males from mother; (ii) the dynamics of growing up in a home where father has multiple wives who may function as surrogate mothers in his lifetime or, at his death, as potential wives; (iii) the vicissitudes of the incest taboo in a complex extended family that is under siege by urbanization. The therapeutic experience contrasts sharply with the experience of western psychiatrists who practiced in Nigeria two decades before.

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“…That the objects of independent religious movements are primarily therapeutic rather than political is highlighted by an increasing body of literature that points to their importance in the treatment of mental illness. In regions afflicted by inadequate medical facilities, healing centres offer fundamental care for the mentally ill (Edgerton, 1980;Green, 1980;Lambo, 1981). In Ethiopia there are only two mental institutions and eight psychiatrists to serve a population of more than 41 million (Habtemariam et al, 1987).…”

Section: The Therapeutic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illness, therapy, and change in Ethiopian possession cults

Vecchiato¹

1993

Africa

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This article examines patterns of continuity and change in spirit possession phenomena among the Sidamo of southern Ethiopia. Traditional possession rituals appear to be losing cultural relevance, owing to the increasing popularity of possession and exorcistic healing enacted within the ritual context of independent religious movements. Such movements emerged in the region as a response to widespread conversion to Christianity and Islam in the 1950s and 1960s. Patterns of possession healing in the new cults are analysed in relation to the prevailing holistic definition of health and the role attributed to supernatural agents i n illness aetiology. While outlining points of convergence and divergence in the recodification of rituals, this article highlights their therapeutic objectives and the centrality of healing in the newly emerged cults. It is argued that the political and sex antagonism model proposed by ‘deprivation theories’ is inadequate to explain the changing modalities of spirit possession and its persistence on the African scene. Independent healing movements should be recognised as an important health resource where rural and urban Africans seek relief from a wide range of organic and mental illnesses, personal misfortunes, and stressful life situations.

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Mental Health of Man in Africa*

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Culture and Psychotherapy: Review and Practical Guidelines

Culture and Psychotherapy: Review and Practical Guidelines

Oedipal Anxiety and Cultural Variations in the Incest Taboo: A Psychotherapy Case Study in the Nigerian Setting

Illness, therapy, and change in Ethiopian possession cults

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