The Colonial and Postcolonial Roots of Global Mental Health Efforts

Jonathan Sadowsky, Jeremy A. Greene

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The field of global mental health has deep historical roots in the colonial era, when psychiatric formulations reflected the agenda and ethnocentrism of colonial regimes. Empirically unsupported theories of racial difference and other racist attributions initially rationalized withholding psychiatric treatment to most colonial subjects, with attendant failure to recognize the pathogenic impacts of the suffering associated with colonialism. These 19th and 20th c. Interactions—which generally diminished and harmed the colonial subjects—also sowed the seeds of distrust for future interactions with foreign health interventions; global mental health trainees and practitioners benefit from understanding the historical context of present-day global mental health engagements. 21st c. global mental health trainees and practitioners benefit from understanding the relevance of colonial and postcolonial histories to contemporary questions in global mental health practice as well. For example, debates about the universality of mental illness versus its cultural relativism have been a longstanding and recurrent pattern in the history of global mental health and its precursors; trainees and practitioners should understand that the latter runs the risk of harmful stereotyping whereas the former risks missing clinically salient local variation. Trainees and practitioners should also understand from the histories of global mental health that delivering psychiatric treatment is not inherently a form of medical imperialism.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationGlobal Mental Health Training and Practice
Subtitle of host publicationAn Introductory Framework
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages21-34
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781351662888
ISBN (Print)9781138064126
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2023

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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