Revenge of the windigo : the construction of the mind and mental health of North American Aboriginal peoples

Waldram, James B. (James Burgess) (Author).

Summary: Discusses our knowledge of Aboriginal mental health: who generates it; how it is generated and communicated; and what has been - and continues to be - its implications for Aboriginal peoples. The author undertakes an exhaustive examination of three disciplines - anthropology, psychology, and psychiatry - and reveals how together they have constructed a gravely distorted portrait of 'the Aboriginal.' Using interdisciplinary methods, the author critically assesses the enormous amount of information that has been generated on Aboriginal mental health, deconstructs it, and through this exercise, provides guidance for a new vein of research.

Record details

ISBN: 0802088260
ISBN: 9780802088260
ISBN: 0802086004
ISBN: 9780802086006
Physical Description: print
xii, 414 pages ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Toronto : University of Toronto Press, ©2004.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-391) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Introduction: monsters and mental health -- Part A: Constructing the aboriginal -- Constructing aboriginal personality: the early years. Ruth Benedict and the Boasian tradition ; The emergence of psychoanalytical anthropology and the search for the Indians' 'basic personality structure' ; The Indian education research project -- The psychoanalyst's aboriginal. Anthropology and the Rorschach: no experience required ; Atomism and the northern Indian ; Persistence of the Rorschach -- Measuring the aboriginal. Measuring aboriginal personality: the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory ; The confusion of race and culture in the measurement of aboriginal intelligence -- Part B: The disordered aboriginal -- The construction of aboriginal psychopathology. 'Latent schizophrenics and primitive people': early studies of psychopathology ; Marginality and the 'caught-between-two-worlds' paradigm -- The alcoholic aboriginal. Indian drinking and white man drinking -- The depressed aboriginal. Conceptualizing depression and suicide -- The culture-bound aboriginal. Windigo psychosis ; Pibloktoq ; Ghost sickness ; Why the culture-bound syndromes persist -- The traumatized aboriginal. Conceptualizing trauma and PTSD ; Trauma and the construction of 'residential school syndrome' -- Part C: Treating the aboriginal -- The clinician's aboriginal -- Healing the traditional aboriginal. The holistic aboriginal ; The use of culture and tradition in treatment ; Defining 'traditional aboriginal healing' -- Conclusion: the Windigo's revenge. Disturbed, disordered, and dysfunctional ; Problems of culture and history ; Defining the aboriginal ; Contemporary aboriginal cultural realities: Creolization and beyond.