MA Module M3: Psychological Anthropologies of Mental Health and Illness
This seminar explores mental health and illness through the lens of psychological anthropology, transcultural psychiatry, and science and technology studies (STS). We will engage with key texts and case studies to investigate how mental health is subjectively experienced, socially embedded, and culturally shaped across diverse settings. How do people live with and make sense of mental illness? How do psychiatric diagnoses, healing practices, and therapeutic interventions unfold in local lifeworlds, clinical encounters, and global mental health agendas?
A central focus lies on the cultural variation of mental health experiences and the epistemological tensions between biomedical, psychological, and cultural understandings of illness. Drawing from field-based research and theoretical contributions, we will examine how clinicians, caregivers, patients, and researchers navigate these tensions.
In particular, the course pays attention to:
- Decolonial critiques and the legacy of colonial knowledge in global mental health;
- Emotion and affect as central to understanding mental distress and healing;
- The relevance of psychological anthropology in unpacking subjective experience;
- Environmental and cultural contexts of mental health in both clinical and everyday spaces.
Each session combines theoretical discussion with grounded ethnographic examples, including audiovisual material and multimodal formats. We invite guest researchers who will share their ethnographic work in he context of mental health and illness.
Course Requirements. Active Participation (‘aktive Teilnahme’): Includes attendance, active contribution to discussions, moderation of a session, and short written response papers.
Examination (‘Prüfungsleistung’). Students can choose between two essays (5 pages each), or one final term paper (‘Hausarbeit’) of 15 pages.
- Lehrende/r: Thomas Stodulka