29652b

WiSe 22/23: Introduction to Psychological Anthropology

Thomas Stodulka

Kommentar

This course discusses foundational assumptions, core themes, and potentials for future research as a pathway into Psychological Anthropology. In the first part (BASICS), we consider why Psychological Anthropology has thrived in US anthropology during the last decades but seems to have been relegated to the margins of other Social and Cultural Anthropologies across the globe. Is it due to a sceptical ‘anti-psychologizing’ disciplinary ethos in anthropology, the role of psychological anthropologists in nationalist, colonial, and war-related agendas of the (early) 20th century, or a lack of postcolonial or decolonial theory and practice?
The second part of the course (KEY TOPICS) takes the recent emergence of psychological anthropologies outside of US anthropology as an opportunity to reflect on current debates. We will elaborate on psychological anthropologies that are concerned with power asymmetries and the effects of universalizing “Western” psychologies. Contemporary psychological anthropology fosters insights into new forms of inequality, violence, and human subjectivity. Hence, the assumption that psychological and bio-psychiatric “insights” are to be imposed on human experience and behavior is itself open to question. This creates productive tensions between universalizing and relativizing understandings of what it means to be human that psychological anthropology can address ethnographically. A significant line of work in psychological anthropology has broadly rejected the universalizing tendencies of psychological discourse and prefers to illuminate historically, politically, and socio-culturally situated concepts of self, personhood, affect, sociality, health and well-being. In addition to critically reflecting and exploring diverse currents within psychological anthropology, the third part of the course (FOCUS AREA) highlights perspectives on diversifying and decolonizing research methods, infrastructures, and curricula in the context of schooling and education as a broader lens and impulse for the discipline. Schließen

Literaturhinweise

Preparatory reading suggestions

- Beatty, A. 2017. Psychological Anthropology – an awkward hybrid? In: S. Coleman, S. B. Hyatt, A. Kingsolver (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Anthropology (pp- 382-399). London: Routledge.
- Casey, C. and R. B. Edgerton, eds. 2005. A Companion to Psychological Anthropology. London: Blackwell.
- Strauss, Claudia. 2015. Psychological Anthropology. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Volume 19 (pp. 359–365). London: Elsevier.
- Video: Luhrmann, Tanya - Making Psychological Anthropology Relevant to Global Mental Health; https://vimeo.com/145555569 Schließen

16 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Di, 12:00 - 14:00 16 Termine

Di, 18.10.2022 12:00 - 14:00

Dozenten:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Stodulka