Psychoanalysis: from clinical medicine to clinical anthropology

2021 ◽  
Vol LIII (2) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
Innokentiy A. Martynov
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Mental Health Field ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Clinical Anthropology ◽  
Emotional Resistance ◽  
Health Field

Psychoanalysis has met highly emotional resistance since its very inception in the late 19th century. A year never passes without somebody proclaiming the death of psychoanalysis. Despite such tendency, psychoanalysis is far from its decline. It is gathering new endorsers rapidly and is enhancing its positions in new geographical and cultural contexts. This article explores the possible origins of such resistance in the Russian mental health field. The author suggests that it is caused first and foremost by disciplinary discrepancies one may observe by studying the discrepancies between medical and psychoanalytical semiotics as a foundational method of the disciplines. Such view allows to explicate some problematic issues and conflicts in the Russian mental healthcare community, as well as to suggest what holds it back from obtaining significant public influence.

The Person with Schizophrenia as a Person

1994 ◽  
Vol 164 (S23) ◽  
pp. 103-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Strauss
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Mental Health Field ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Subjective Side

In the mental health field, the attention given to the subjective side of a person's experience is grossly inadequate. The best way to reflect the subjectivity of a person may be by means of the subjectivity of another. To take account of both subjective experience and objective measures in the course of mental disorders, a new concept is needed. This may be the person's story.

Psy-science and the colonial relationship in the mental health field

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.J. Penson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Mental Health Field ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Critical Literature

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically discuss how the psy-sciences have been, and continue to be, typified by some critics, as colonizers and are credited with Imperialistic motivations. However, rarely are these critiques developed beyond a pejorative characterisation. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews the criticisms of psychiatry as colonial and outlines the tensions in taking different frames of reference in the mental health field, before going on to suggest theoretical and research perspectives arising from postcolonial theory that might advance these critical positions more coherently and the implications of doing so. Findings – This study suggests an engagement with humanities-based methods and fields such as postcolonial scholarship. Social implications – This argument is timely, especially given recent controversies over the publication of DSM5, the scaling up agenda for mental health in the Global South and increased attention to the agenda of Big Pharma. Originality/value – Postcolonial intersections with psy-science remains a relatively undeveloped area in the critical literature.

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