Abstract
This essay seeks out continuities and discontinuities in the transition from colonial to post-colonial psychiatry. It seems important, if somewhat obvious, to point out that in the transition from colonial to post-colonial both Senegal and France were transformed. To be sure, Senegal’s independence figured more weightily in Senegal than in France, but then Senegal was only one many colonies that France lost in those years, so it is not an exaggeration to speak of parallel if not identical transformations. Colonial psychiatry transformed into a diverse range of practices, ranging from collaborations with traditional healing to biomedical, pharmaceutical-based psychiatry. Transcultural psychiatry occupies a mid-range in this spectrum; committed wholly neither to Western nor to Senegalese culture, it reaches out, seeking to bridge differences in beliefs and practices related to spirit, psyche, healing and wellness. Transcultural psychiatry here is distinguished from ‘ethnopsychiatry,’ understood as the project launched by Georges Devereux of recuperating entire healing systems from non-Western cultures.1 Transcultural psychiatry is a practice which involves and interests Senegal and France (as well, to be sure, as other countries). Its emergence demonstrates how, in the psychiatric arena during the transition to post-colonialism, neither Senegal nor France emerged as less caught up in an inter-connecting set of relations.
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Georges Devereux, Mohave Ethnopsychiatry and Suicide; The Psychiatric Knowledge and the Psychic Disturbances of an Indian Tribe (Washington, D.C Government Printing Office: 1961). For comparable work on Senegal see, Andras Zempleni, L’interprétation et la thérapie traditionnelles du désordre mental chez les Wolof et les Lebou (Sénégal), Thèse de 3ème cycle, 1968.
Association des Chercheurs Sénégalaise La Folie au Sénégal (Dakar, 1997), p. 15 and p. 209.
For example, legislation of February 11, 1941, article 74 of the code pénal indigêne, outlawed divination throught the administration of poison, even in cases where the parties consented. Section VIII, article 92, outlawed ‘calumnious denunciation’ (which would presumably cover accusations of witchcraft), Section VIII, article 105, outlawed sorcerey, magic and ‘charlatanism’ (which would include some instances of traditional healing), establishing a punishment of 15 days to 6 months imprisonment. See, La justice indigêne en Afrique occidentale française (Rufisque; Imprimerie du Haut Commissariat, 1941), pp. 31 and 38–39. Colonial laws were unevenly enforced, and customary law was allowed precedence in many instances. René Pautrat, La justice locale et la musulmane en A.O.F. (Rufisque, Imprimerie du Haut Commissariate de la République en Afrique occidentale française, 1957), states that in cases where customary law “deeply shocks our sense of humanity” it could be contravened (p. 92). This would apply, for example, in divination by administration of poison, in accusations of witchcraft, and in cannibalism.
Gaston Jean Bouvenet, Recueil annoté des textes de Droit Pénal applicables en Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris, Editions de l’Union française, 1955), cites legislation of Sept. 9, 1945, article 8, on the illegal practice of medicine, which became applicable in AOF in 1952 (p. 427); November 19, 1947, law against cannibalism (p. 51).
Myron Echenberg, Black Death, White Medicine: Bubonic Plague and the Politics of Public Health in Colonial Senegal, 1914–1945 (Portsmouth, NH; Heinemann: 2002), pp. 161 and 165.
Andras Zempleni, “La thérapie traditionnelle des troubles mentaux chez les Wolofs et les Lebou (Sénégal),” African Therapeutic Systems, ed. by Z.A. Ademuwagun, John A.A. Ayoade, Ira Harrison and Dennis M. Warren (Waltham, MA; Crossroads Press, 1979), 144–150.
Henri Collomb, “De l’ethnopsychiatrie à la psychiatrie sociale,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 24:5 (August 1979) 459–470, pp. 464–465.
There were, of course, laws against cannibalism, the favourite practice of witches. However, these laws mistook the metaphysical nature of West African cannibalism, which we might best express as a form of soul-theft rather than actual ingestion of flesh and blood. Thus, legal cases were brought against individuals accused of actually eating the bodies of other people, whereas at best, within their own cultural framework, they were guilty of stealing and eating the ‘soul’ of their prey. For a series of trials in the 1920s see, Robert M. Baum, “Crimes of the Dream World: French Trials of Diola Witches” unpublished paper held at Northwestern University library. See also, William S. Simmons, Eyes of the Night, Witchcraft among a Senegalese People (Boston, Little Brown: 1971);
Henri Labouret, “La sorcellerie au Soudan Occidental,” Africa VIII: 4 (October 1935), 462–472;
David Ames, “Belief in ‘Witches’ among the Rural Wolof of the Gambia,” Africa XXIX: 3 (July 1959), 263–273.
For the most authoritative account see, Andras Zempleni, “La dimension therapeutiqe du culte des Rab,” Psychopathologie Africaine (1966) II; iii, pp. 295–439.
See as well the more recent book, Simone Kalis, Médecine traditionnelle, religion et divination chez les Seereer Siin du Sénégal; la connaissance de la nuit (Paris; L’Harmattan: 1997).
Henri Labouret and Moussa Travélé, “Quelques aspects de la magie africaine; Amulettes et talismans au Soudan Français” Bulletin du comité d’études historiques et scientifiques 1927 X: iii–iv, 477–545.
Charles Monteil, “La Divination chez les noirs de l’Afrique Occidentale Française,” Bulletin du comité des études historiques et scientifiques 1931, XIV:i (Jan–Mars) 27–136. See pp. 134–36.
Jules Bois, “Étude documentaire sur l’auteur,” in Emile Mauchamp, La sorcellerie au Maroc (Paris; Dorbon-Ainé: 1911), pp. 11–67, p. 23.
P. Mauchamp, “Lettre de M.P. Mauchamp à M. Jules Bois,” in Emile Mauchamp, La sorcellerie au Maroc (Paris; Dorbon-Ainé: 1911), 1–3, p. 3.
Gustave Martin and Ringenbach, “Troubles psychiques dans la maladie du sommeil,” L’Encéphale (June 10, 1910) V:vi, 625–671 and (August 10, 1910) V:viii, 97–119.
Paul Borreil, Considerations sur l’internement des Aliénés Sénégalais (Montpellier; G. Firmin, Montane et Sicardi, 1908).
Antonin Porot & Angelo Hesnard, L’Expertise mentale militaire (Paris; Masson & Cie.: 1918);
and Antonin Porot & Angelo Hesnard, Psychiatrie de Guerre; étude clinique, préface de M. le médecin-inspecteur Simonin (Paris; Felix Alcan: 1919).
Emmanuel Régis and Angelo Hesnard,. Psychoanalyse des névroses et des psychoses, ses applications médicales et extra-médicales (Paris; F. Alcan: 1914).
Also by Hesnard, Les syndromes névropathiques (Paris; G. Doin & cie: 1927) and Freud dans la société d’après guerre (Geneva; Editions du Mont-Blanc: 1946).
Henri Reboul and Emmanuel Régis, “L’assistance des aliénés aux colonies,” Rapport au Congrès des médecins aliénistes et neurologistes de France et des pays de langue française, XXII session, Tunis, 1–7 Avril 1912, Paris, l’Académie de Médecine.
Antonin Porot & A. Hesnard, L’Expertise mentale militaire (Paris; Masson & Cie.: 1918), p. 46.
A. Porot A. Hesnard, Psychiatrie de Guerre (Paris, Felix Alcan: 1919), p. 68.
For a first person account of the transition from the Ambulance du Cap Manuel to the new facility at Fann see, Jean Rainaut, “Historique de la création du service de neuropsychiatrie de Fann,” Psychopathologie Africaine, XVII, 1/2/3 (1981), 431–435.
In addition to faculty salaries, the costs of construction and physical upkeep of the university were part of the French budget. See, Michael Crowder, Senegal; A Study o f French Assimilation Policy (London; Methuen & Co., 1962, revised edition 1967), p. 118.
Jacqueline Rabain, L’enfant du lignage; du sevrage à la classe d’âge (Paris, Payot: 1979), new edition, 1994.
For a complete listing of the scholarship during the early Fann years see, René Collignon, “Vingt ans de travaux à la clinique psychiatrique de Fann-Dakar,” Psychopathologie africaine (1978) XIV: 2–3, 133–356.
Eric Gbodossou, The African Concept: From God to Man; An Introduction to African Spiritualism (Dakar, Senegal; Prometra: 2004).
Rainaut, Jean, ‘Historique de la création du service de neuropsychiatrie de Fann’, Psychopathologie Africaine, XVII, 1981, p. 431.
Dr. Colonel Cazanove, “Les Conceptions Magico-Religieuses des Indigènes de l’Afrique Occidentale Française,” Les Grandes Endémies Tropicales (1933), 5: 38–48.
Henri Aubin, “L’Assistance psychiatrique indigène aux colonies,” Congrès des Médecins Aliénistes et Neurologistes de France et des Pays de Langue Française, XLII (April 6–11, 1938), 147–176.
Aubin (1939). Introduction a l’étude de la psychiatrie chez les noirs, Annales Médico-Psychologiques I: 1 January, 1–29;
Aubin “Discussion du Rapport de Psychiatrie,” Congres des Médecins Alienistes et Neurologistes de France (1956) LIV session, 162–165.
See, Marcel Griaule,Conseiller de l’Union Française (Paris, Nouvelles Éditions Latines: 1957), p. 91.
By the 1950s psychological testing rose to prominence in West Africa, with specific accommodation made for cultural and environmental differences among test populations. Collomb participated in at least one study of crosscultural use of a projective personality test. See, Alice Bullard, “The Critical Impact of Frantz Fanon and Henri Collomb; Race, Gender and Personality Testing of North and West Africans” The Journal for the History of Behavioral Sciences 41(3) Summer 2005, 225–248.
Thomas Lambo, African traditional beliefs: concepts of health and medical practice (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1963).
Roger Bastide, “Psychiatrie, Ethnographie et Sociologie; Les maladies mentales et le Noir brésilien,” in Desordres mentaux et santé mentale en Afrique au Sud du Sahara, Reunion CCTA/CSA — FMSM — OMS de Specialistes sur la Santé Mentale (CSA, 1958), 223–232, p. 227.
See also Jean Rauch’s study of the prophet Albert Atcho, “Introduction à l’étude de la communauté de Bregbo,” Journal de la société des Africanistes (1963) XXXIII:i, 129–202.
See the Introduction to Giovanni de Girolamo, Leon Eisenberg, Sir David P. Goldberg and John E. Cooper, eds, Promoting Mental Health Internationally in honour of Professor Norman Sartorius, London: Gaskell: 1999. For a critical perspective on the WHO project see, Arthur Kleinman, “Anthropology and Psychiatry: The Role of Culture in Cross-Cultural Research on Illness,” British Journal of Psychiatry 151, 447–454.
The DSM-III was first published in 1980; the ICD 10 was published as, The International classification of mental and behavioural disorders: clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines (Geneva; World Health Organization: 1992). See, A. Jablensky, “Beyond ICD-10 and DSM-IV: Issues in Contemporary Psychiatry,” in Giovanni de Girolamo, Leon Eisenberg, Sir David P. Goldberg and John E. Cooper, eds, Promoting Mental Health Internationally in honour of Professor Norman Sartorius, London: Gaskell: 1999, pp. 47–56.
On the DSM-III, Stuart A. Kirk and Herb Kutchin, The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry (Aldine de Gruyter: 1992), gives a detailed account of the origins of the DSM-III and the sweeping transformation of psychiatry it represented.
Henri Collomb, “De l’ethnopsychiatrie à la psychiatrie sociale,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 24:5 (August 1979), 459–470, p. 460.
Henri Collomb, “L’avenir de la psychiatrie en Afrique,” Psychopathologie Africaine, 1973, IX: 3, 343–370. Hereafter cited as Collomb, “Avenir.”
Marie-Cécile and Edmond Ortigues, L’Oedipe Africain, 3rd edition (Paris, Harmattan: 1984), relied on the hundreds of clients Marie-Cécile Ortigues treated at Fann.
For an assessment of the legacy of this book see, Alice Bullard, “L’Oedipe Africain, a Retrospective,” Transcultural Psychiatry, 42: 2 (June 2005), 171–203.
See, for example, Edmond Doutté, Magie et Religion dans l’Afrique du Nord (Alger, Adolphe Jourdan: 1908).
Collignon, “Prend toute sa place aussi dans ce mouvement, le désaveu de certains errements passés qui avaient fait tolérer une présence ambigue de guérisseurs au sein du service en dépit des enseignements des recherches ethnologiques sur les fondements de l’efficacité du guérisseur dans son espace propre qui ne saurait etre réduit à celui d’une situation de dépendance paramédicale.” René Collignon, “Santé mentale entre psychiatrie contemporaine et pratique traditionnelle (Le cas du Sénégal),” Psych Af, 2000, XXX: 3, 283–298, p. 294.
Marie-Cécile and Edmond Ortigues L’Oedipe Africain (Paris, Harmattan: 1984), p. 155.
Danielle Storper-Perez, La folie colonisé (Paris; F. Maspero: 1974).
Collomb, “Avenir,” p. 353. See also, Henri Collomb, “Recontre de deux systèmes de soins” Soc Sci Med, VII (1975), 623–633;
Henri Collomb, “Psychiatrie moderne et thérapeutiques traditionnelles” Ethiopiques 2 (1974), 40–54; and Pascal Picard, “Reflexions su le phénomène de la double demande.” Dakar: faculté de médecine, 170 pp, Mémoire de CES psychiatrie, 1985, p. 30.
Terence Ranger and Eric Hobsbawm provided scholars with a much needed critical edge with their The Invention of Tradition (New York; Cambridge University Press: 1983).
For a sense of the era see, the collection of essays in Z.A. Ademuwagun, John A.A. Ayoade, Ira Harrison and Dennis M. Warren, African Therapeutic Systems (Waltham MA; Crossroads Press: 1979).
Law 75–80, July 9, 1975. See, René Collignon, “Santé mentale entre psychiatrie contemporaine et pratique traditionnelle (Le cas du Sénégal),” Psych Af, 2000, XXX: 3, 283–298. Hereafter cited as Collignon, “Santé mentale.”
Gilles Bibeau, “Regards Anthropologiques sur une Encyclique Sanitaire peu Orthodoxe de l’OMS,” Psychopathologie Africaine, XIX(2), 1983, 231–238;
and Koumare, B., Coudray, J.-P., Miquel-Garcia, E.; “L’Assistance psychiatrique au Mali; à propos du placement des patients psychiatriques chroniques auprès de tradipraticiens.” Psychopathologie Africaine, XXIV(2), 1992, 135–148.
He continued, “the current situation is very ambiguous, as demonstrated in a recent study (Ph. Singer: 1976).” Henri Collomb, “De l’ethnopsychiatrie à la psychiatrie sociale,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol, 24: 5 (August 1979) 459–470, p. 459.
The IK notes are published by the World Bank and have now been compiled in book and CD format as, Indigenous Knowledge; Local Pathways to Global Development, Marking Five Years of the World Bank Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program (World Bank, Africa Region; Washington, D.C.: 2004).
Ellen Corin, Uchoa, E., Bibeau, G., Koumare, B., Coulibaly, B., Coulibaly, M., Mounkoro, P. & Sissoko, M., “La Place de la Culture dans la Psychiatrie Africaine d’Aujourd’hui,” Psychopathologie Africaine, XXIV (2), 1992, 149–181;
and Ndoye, O., Devos, A., Gueye, M., “L’ethnopsychiatrie à Fann aujourd’hui,” Psychopathologie Africaine, XXX(3), 2000, 265–282.
Jan Goldstein, Console and Classify; The French Psychiatric Profession in the Nineteenth Century (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1987).
The nurse René Leuckx, who spent 7 months at Kénia in 1977, criticized the arrangement as one that threw the nurses too much onto their own resources, denying them and the patients interaction with doctors. See, René Collignon, “Santé mentale entre psychiatrie contemporaine et pratique traditionnelle, (Le cas du Sénégal), “Psych Af, 2000, XXX: 3, 283–298, p. 286.
Omar Ndoye, Anne Devos, Momar Gueye, “L’ethnopsychiatrie à Fann aujourd’hui,” Psych. Af. 2000, XXX: 3, 265–282, p. 276.
See also, René Collignon, “Santé mentale entre psychiatrie contemporaine et pratique traditionelle (le cas du Sénégal),” Psychopathologie Africaine, XXX: 3 (2000), 283–298, 291.
Tobie Nathan, L’influence qui guérit (Paris: Editions Odile Jacob: 1994);
Tobie Nathan and Isabelle Stengers, Médecins et sorciers (Le Plessis Synthélabo: 1995).
For example see, Marie Rose Moro, avant propos by Serge Lebovici, Parents en exil; psychopathologie et migrations (PUF 1994); Enfants d’ici venus d’ailleurs: naître et grandir en France (Paris, Découverte: 2002).
It is certainly possible to look on Nathan’s work with a critical eye. See, Jean-Godefroy Bidima, “Ethnopsychiatry and its Reverses: Telling the Fragility of the Other,” Diogenes No. 189, Vol. 48:1 (2000) 68–82. Transcultural Psychiatry 34:3 published three articles on Nathan, two positive and one rather critical especially of Nathan’s recent neo-traditionalism.
Mohamed Chabane and Marie-Cécile Ortigues, “Enfants africains et maghrébins; entre les incitations à la réussite individuelle et la fidélité aux valeurs de leurs traditions,” Psychiatres (1995) 107, 29–37, p. 37.
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Bullard, A. (2007). Imperial Networks and Postcolonial Independence: The Transition from Colonial to Transcultural Psychiatry. In: Mahone, S., Vaughan, M. (eds) Psychiatry and Empire. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593244_9
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