“Littlewood and Dein (are) two scholars of medical anthropology and cultural psychiatry who have influenced and inspired generations of anthropologists and mental health students, researchers and practitioners.” • Erminia Colucci, Middlesex University London

“Few people capable (or brave enough) to address anthropology, psychiatry and cultures of monotheism in the critical and sometimes controversial way in which the authors have. The volume represents, fieldwork included, three decades of exploration into a topic that otherwise sits latently under the very structures of Western society and its medical institutions. These papers should be read by any student in social sciences and medicine (separately and combined), even if to question them.”  • Aaron Parkhurst, University College London 

While Psychology and Anthropology share certain overlapping interests, there is no agreed schema or paradigm for this area. Rejecting both psychoanalysis and the biopsychosocial model as insufficient, this collection brings together studies on Hasidic concepts of illness, the religious origins of schizophrenia, Christian stigmata, the “third sex” in Albania, jinn possession among European immigrants, and reincarnation among the Druze. The volume argues for plural models integrating biological, psychodynamic, and sociocultural perspectives. It highlights the enduring tension between Psychiatry’s naturalistic explanations and Anthropology’s personalistic approach, suggesting that both offer partial yet essential insights into human experience.

Subject: Medical Anthropology Theory and Methodology

Area:

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; MED105000 MEDICAL/Psychiatry/General; PSY059000 PSYCHOLOGY/Cross-Cultural Psychology