Ongaro, Giulio (2024) Outline for an Externalist Psychiatry (2): An Anthropological Detour. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 31 (3). pp. 285-300.
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Abstract
Philosophical speculation about how psychiatric externalism might function in practice has yet to fully consider the multitude of externalist psychiatric systems that exist beyond the bounds of modern psychiatry. Believing that anthropology can inform philosophical debate on the matter, the paper illustrates one such case. The discussion is based on 19 months of first-hand ethnographic fieldwork among Akha, a group of swidden farmers living in highland Laos and neighboring borderlands. First, the paper describes the Akha set of medicinal, ritual, and shamanic practices, analyzing issues of stigma and medical pluralism within it. Second, it makes the case that the Akha realize a functioning biopsychosocial system which comes with a well-developed set of resources for treating the social dimension of illness. Externalism among the Akha re-frames psychiatric illness as a ‘problem in living,’ which becomes manageable as such. The paper claims that, in so doing, the Akha system succeeds in many of the areas where modern internalist psychiatry falls short, and that it does so because Akha society is structured in such a way so that its practitioners can shift the social environment around the patient. As a takeaway for philosophers, it suggests that the development of an externalist psychiatry must begin from questioning the accepted ontology of the social causes of psychiatric illness.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Biopsychosocial model; ethnopsychiatry; stigma; shamanism; medical pluralism; externalist psychiatry | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Anthropology General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Medicine > Psychiatry |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Giulio Ongaro | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 25 Sep 2024 11:47 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2024 11:47 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 23949 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/937773 | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | https://doi.org/10.1353/ppp.2024.a937773 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Anthropology General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Medicine > Psychiatry |
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| Date: | 23 September 2024 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 285-300 | ||||||
| Volume: | 31 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23949 |
Available Versions of this Item
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Outline for an externalist psychiatry (2): an anthropological detour. (deposited 28 Jan 2024 11:17)
- Outline for an Externalist Psychiatry (2): An Anthropological Detour. (deposited 25 Sep 2024 11:47) [Currently Displayed]
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