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Announcement Theme: Encountering Madness Subtitle: Intercultural and Decolonial Approaches to the Phenomenon of Mental Illness Type: Lecture Series Institution: Working Group 'Intercultural Philosophizing: Theory and Practice', Vienna Society for Intercultural Philosophy Location: Vienna (Austria) – Online Date: October 2022 – January 2023 __________________________________________________ It was particularly the paradigm of a body-soul dichotomy that shaped thinking about illness in the modern West. With more recent developments in the natural and especially the neurosciences, increasingly close, causally conceived connections were made between measurable bodily functions and mental states. The accompanying image of an individualized human being whose mental suffering must have an objectifiable cause continues to shape Euro-American mainstream discourse to this day. This is reflected not least in the rise of psychiatry but also in the objectifying varieties of psychotherapy, which first dominated the Euro-American area and finally went and still go around the world with modernity, (neo-)colonialism and (cultural) imperialism. While Western discourse continues to present itself as universal truth, intercultural and decolonial orientations expose precisely its provinciality by not only criticizing the cultural conditionality of its epistemic presuppositions, but also pointing to alternative approaches in understanding psychological suffering. Thus, in diverse life practices and life-worlds around the globe, different philosophical approaches can be found that withdraw the experienced suffering from both the standard psychiatric nosology and the binarity of body and soul, health and illness, sanity and madness. In this sense, the concern of this lecture series is understood as an attempt to interrogate the mainstream understanding of "mental illness" and to give voice to positions that have been repressed in the global context. Questions we will consider include: What was the role of psychiatry and psychotherapy in societies shaped by neo-colonialisms? To what extent would they need to be transformed or even deconstructed today from an intercultural and/or decolonial perspective? What approaches to an alternative ontology of the "psyche" or the experience of "illness" do non-European philosophies offer us? Finally, amidst the various crises and effects of global capitalism, what old and new ways can we find to think holistically about suffering, care, and healing? Coordination: Cristina Chițu, Manu Sharma & Murat Ates Please register under: off...@wigip.org 28.10., 18:30 (6:30 pm CET) Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Berggasse 17, 1090 Vienna) Univ.-Prof. Dr. Kirsten Rüther (Universität Wien, Austria): Verhinderte Professionalisierung bei izangoma (traditionellen Heilern) und izinyanga in Südafrika Die Heilmethoden traditioneller Heilerinnen und Heiler in einem Land wie Südafrika – man mag im ersten Moment denken, dass sie einfach existieren. Um sich mit ihnen zu befassen, fragt man nach Prinzipien dieser Heilungsformen, Akteuren und institutionellen Einbindungen. Doch so einfach ist es häufig nicht, und es lohnt, an einem anderen Punkt des Heilungsgeschehens mit dem Fragen einzusetzen. In Südafrika hat die Professionalisierung afrikanischer Heilerinnen und Heiler eine lange Geschichte der Verhinderung. Gerade in den wachsenden Städten bemühten sich izangoma, izinyanga und andere Spezialisten gegenüber einem kolonialen Regime um offizielle Anerkennung durch die Behörden, die diese ihnen jedoch kontinuierlich versagten. Im Nationalarchiv werden zahlreiche Schreiben, selbst erstellte Lizenzen und Jahresberichte nicht anerkannter Heilerverbände aufbewahrt, die deren Selbstverständnis in den 1930er und 1940er Jahren dokumentieren, aber auch die Bereitschaft, sich den Behörden und geltenden Hierarchien im Sinne der Erhaltung von Ordnen geradezu „anzubiedern“. Als „traditionell“ bezeichneten sich diese Heilungsexpertinnen und -experten allerdings nicht. Auch die Behörden griffen auf diese Etikettierung nicht zurück. Sie war aber relevant in den Professionalisierungsbestreben nach dem Ende der Apartheid. Das Etikett des „Traditionellen“ (ebenso wie die Verurteilung als „Hexerei“, die in den 2000er Jahren die Diskussion um Professionalisierung erschwerte) verdeckt tendenziell die Historizität dieser Heilungsakteure und ihrer Praktiken. Der Blick ins Archiv und weitere Abbildungsorte (z.B. populäre Medien) stellen wichtige Schritte dar, den Blick auf izangoma, izinyanga und andere Heilende komplexer zu gestalten. Er regt zudem an, über die Geschichte des Politischen, Sozialen und Gesundheitlichen neu nachzudenken. 11.11., 18.30 (6:30 pm CET) Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Berggasse 17, 1090 Vienna) Dr. Mitha Karim (University of Edinburgh, UK): Mental Health and Muslim Communities Within any culture, there are paradigmatic views of personal and communal experiences and understanding of social and natural phenomena. This includes frameworks of understanding what is viewed as “mental illness”. Whilst a sociopsychobio framework is largely the model used to address mental health and illness amongst allopathic practitioners, it is important to recognise that the lived experience and therefore the understanding of experiences by individuals is influenced by cultural frameworks. In relation to Muslims, conceptualisations of mental health and illness is often viewed and discussed in the literature in terms of “cultural formulations”, with an almost Other-ed approach in viewing traditional and spirito-cultural models of understanding mental health. That said, this approach neglects recognition of the diaspora of Muslim communities, that faith is practised across various cultural milieus and the therefore reductive nature of a monolithic approach, and that social and contextual factors can influence discourse on mental health. This talk discusses contemporary approaches and debates pertaining to “Muslim mental health” – noting common models of understanding of psychopathology, various frameworks and coping strategies, and problematises current approaches and whether they are adept/fit for Muslim communities. It also considers current movements to “decolonise” mental health from the Muslim framework, addressing intra-community debates pertaining to Muslim mental health, as well as problematising current approaches to addressing mental health needs amongst Muslim migrant communities. 14.11., 18.30 (6:30 pm CET) Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Berggasse 17, 1090 Vienna) Dr. Murat Ates (Universität Wien, Austria): Wahnsinn als Realitätskritik und politische Intervention (details to follow) 30.11., 18.30 (6:30 pm CET) Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Berggasse 17, 1090 Vienna) Dr. Susannah Deane (University of Bristol, UK): Mind, Body, Spirits: Tibetan Notions of the ‘Subtle Body’ and its Implications for the Causation and Treatment of Mental Illness Integral to Tibetan understandings of mind and body, and humans’ relation to the wider world, are two key concepts. Firstly, the notion of loong – ‘wind’ energy which circulates through the body as a key component of the ‘subtle body’ system – is fundamental to Tibetan understandings on mind-body structure and functioning, particularly in relation to the mind and consciousness. Secondly, the relationship between humans and the wide variety of spirits and deities seen to populate the landscape is important in understanding Tibetan notions of health and good fortune. Both are predicated on an understanding of a rather ‘porous’ boundary between the self and the outer world, and within this, Buddhism provides not only a way to manage these local spirits and deities, but also designs practices which utilise this subtle body system to manipulate the mind and body towards enlightenment. All of these factors become key when we explore Tibetan notions of mental health and illness. Where spirits and deities may be implicated in the causation of madness and other illnesses and misfortunes, they can also be controlled by skilled Buddhist practitioners, who may even utilise them in their Tantric practices in their pursuit of enlightenment. Equally, while the manipulation of bodily wind currents forms an integral part of Tantric practitioners’ Buddhist practices, unintended disruptions in their flow – including as a result of conducting such practices incorrectly – is seen to have implications for an individual’s mental health. This paper explores the diverse understandings of causation and treatment of ‘madness’ and other mental health difficulties which result from these Tibetan notions of mind, body, and spirits. 13.01., 15.00 (3:00 pm CET) via zoom Dr. Siby K. George (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India): The Disrupted Self: Madness, Modernity and Context Phenomenological accounts associate ill conditions of the psyche/soul with disturbance in its habitual ways of being in the world (Heidegger) or disruptions of the intentional arc (Merleau-Ponty) that envelops the body and connects it with the world. All illnesses involve varying degrees of disruptions of our embodied-enworlded way of being. However, because ill conditions of the psyche cannot be pinpointed to be located specifically in the body, cultural understandings of their meaning, character, and even reality have varied that much more starkly (Foucault). In this talk, my focus will be on how the disruptions of madness are looked at in India after the arrival of modern medicine, and how such an account could contribute to contextualize and decolonize psychopathology. 20.01., 18.30 (6:30 pm CET) via zoom Dr. Therí Pickens (Bates College, Maine, USA): What Editing Does In discussions about madness and Blackness, we often focus on how the ideas take shape, how analyses come to be. While it is crucial to understand and reframe our suppositions and assumptions, it is also just as crucial to examine the containers of our thought. Much of the work on Blackness and madness, indeed race and disability is largely done in monographs and edited collections. When the rest of the academy is slow to understand new work, tenured scholars tend to take on the work of announcing new fields with edited volumes. As an editor of three volumes, I plan to lay out a blueprint for how seasoned scholars can assist in bringing this new work to the fore. This talk desires to make practical and feasible the hard work of foregrounding new voices and changing the field. After all, if the malevolent has found its way into the details, it is only because the beneficent has preceded it. 25.01., 18:30 (6:30 pm CET) via zoom Dr. Juan Andrés Pino Morán (Universidad de O´higgins, Chile): Movimiento loco en Chile: activismos, epistemologías ytransformación social La presentación tiene como principal objetivo presentar el surgimiento del movimiento loco en Chile como una expresión de resistencia ciudadana ante los mandatos de obligatoriedad afectiva heteronormada que impulsa el neoliberalismo actual. Así también, destacar laspropuestas que articulan el activismo loco con la academia, validando el saber de los y las expertas por experiencia o sobrevivientes de lapsiquiatría. Del mismo modo, reconocer la emergencia de epistemologías anticuerdistas que problematizan y denuncian el saber hegemónico de la salud mental occidental, el cual sistemáticamente viola los derechos humanos y psiquiatriza el malestar social de maneradiferenciada y generizada. A su vez, pretendo analizar el vínculo y distancia del movimiento loco con la perspectiva descolonial y el pensamiento crítico; destacando cómo opera la colonialidad del poder cuerdista-desarrollista que sitúa a las personas de Latinoamérica cercano a la zona del no ser, por lo tanto, alejadas de la razón moderna, más cercanas a un estado de locura o naturaleza. Bajo esta interpretación develar cómo se entrelaza elcuerdismo, capacitismo, sexismo y racismo como ejes interseccionales en la producción binaria de normalidad-anormalidad en nuestrascorporeidades, itinerarios y territorios, conformando otredades sin posibilidades de producir cultura y en una permanente deuda por llegar a ser “modernxs” y “civilizadxs”. Para finalizar, situar esta incipiente corriente de pensamiento dentro de los debates interdisciplinarios que se gestan en los estudios críticosde la discapacidad en Latinoamérica y, particularmente, en su expresión emergente de los estudios locos que dan cuenta de nuevas identidades y disputas por alcanzar un reconocimiento de sus luchas y avanzar hacia una transformación social. Further information: https://wigip.org/arbeitskreis/#c725 __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
