Trauma and humanitarian translation in Liberia: The tale of Open Mole

Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry

Volumn 34, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 353-379

  Abramowitz, Sharon Alane ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Community based mental health; Culture bound syndromes; Humanitarian intervention; Idiom of distress; Liberia; Open Mole; Transcultural psychiatry; Trauma

Indexed keywords

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR; ADULT; AGED; ALTRUISM; ARTICLE; CASE REPORT; CIVIL DISORDER; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; DELUSION; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ETHNOLOGY; FEMALE; FONTANEL; HUMAN; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; LIBERIA; LIFE EVENT; MENTAL DISEASE; MIDDLE AGED; PATIENT CARE; PATIENT REFERRAL; POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SEMANTICS; SOCIAL PROBLEM; SOMATOFORM DISORDER; SYMBOLISM; TRADITIONAL MEDICINE; VIOLENCE; WITCHCRAFT;

ADAPTATION, PSYCHOLOGICAL; ADULT; AGED; ALTRUISM; ANOMIE; CIVIL DISORDERS; CRANIAL FONTANELLES; CULTURE; DELUSIONS; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; FEMALE; HUMANS; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; LIBERIA; LIFE CHANGE EVENTS; MEDICINE, TRADITIONAL; MENTAL DISORDERS; MIDDLE AGED; PATIENT CARE TEAM; REFERRAL AND CONSULTATION; SEMANTICS; SOMATOFORM DISORDERS; STRESS DISORDERS, POST-TRAUMATIC; STRESS DISORDERS, TRAUMATIC; SYMBOLISM; VIOLENCE; WITCHCRAFT;

EID: 77953082229     PISSN: 0165005X     EISSN: 1573076X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11013-010-9172-0     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Abramowitz, Sharon Alane 2009 Psychosocial Liberia: Managing Suffering in Post-conflict Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
2. Abramowitz, Sharon Alane 2010 Moral Missionaries: 'Being' Traumatized and 'Doing' Psychosocial Work in Liberia's Post-Conflict Reconstruction. In Legacies of Violence: Symptom, Memory, and Intervention in the Aftermath of Mass Trauma. A. Hinton and D. Hinton, eds.
3. Baingana, F., I. Bannon, and R. Thomas 2005 Mental Health and Conflicts. Conceptual Framework and Approaches. Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper. Washington, DC: World Bank.
4. Baingana, Florence, Ian Bannon 2004 Integrating Mental Health and Psychosocial Interventions into World Bank Lending for Conflict-Affected Populations: A Toolkit. Health Nutrition and Population, Conflict Prevention & Reconstruction. Washington, DC: World Bank.
5. Bakhtin, M. M., and Michael Holquist 1981 The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
6. Banatvala, N., and A. B. Zwi 2000 Conflict and Health: Public Health and Humanitarian Interventions: Developing the Evidence Base. British Medical Journal 321(7253): 101-105.
7. Bender, D. E., and D. Ewbank 2004 The Focus Group as a Tool for Health Research: Issues in Design and Analysis. Health Transition Review 4(1): 63-79.
8. Bourdieu, Pierre 1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Bracken, P. J., J. E. Giller, and D. Summerfield 1995 Psychological Responses to War and Atrocity: The Limitations of Current Concepts. Social Science & Medicine 40(8): 1073-1082.
10. de Jong, J. T. V. M., and I. H. Komproe 2002 Closing the gap Between Psychiatric Epidemiology and Mental Health in Post- Conflict Situations. Lancet 359(9320): 1793-1794.
11. de Jong, J. T. V. M., I. H. Komproe, and M. van Ommeren 2003 Common Mental Disorders in Postconflict Settings. Lancet 361(9375): 2128-2130.
12. Desjarlais, R., et al. 1995 World Mental Health: Problems and Priorities in Low-Income Countries. New York: Oxford University Press.
13. Drewal, H. J. 1988 Performing the Other: Mami Wata Worship in Africa. TDR 32(2): 160-185.
14. Drewal, H. J. 2008 Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas: Exhibition Preview. African Arts 4(2): 60-83.
15. Ellis, Stephen 1999 The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War. New York: New York University Press.
16. Frank, B. 1995 Permitted and Prohibited Wealth: Commodity-Possessing Spirits, Economic Morals, and the Goddess Mami Wata in West Africa. Ethnology 34(4): 331-346.
17. Hales, Ann 1996 West African Beliefs about Mental Illness. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 32(2): 23-29.
18. Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) 2007 IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings. Geneva: IASC.
19. International Crisis Group 2004 Liberia and Sierra Leone: Rebuilding Failed States. In Crisis Group Africa Report. Washington, DC: International Crisis Group.
20. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2009 Psychosocial Interventions: A Handbook. Copenhagen, Denmark: IFRC.
21. Kezala, W. S., C. K. Ampadu, and R. J. Macauley 1989 Study of the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Parents on Open Mole in Children. Monrovia, LR: Cuttington University College, International Development Research Centre.
22. Kirmayer, L. J. 1984 Culture, Affect and Somatization. Transcultural Psychiatry 21(159): 159-188.
23. Kirmayer, Laurence J. M. D., and Allan Young 1998 Culture and Somatization: Clinical, Epidemiological, and Ethnographic Perspectives. Psychosomatic Medicine July/August 60(4): 420-430.
24. Kirmayer, Laurence J., Robert Lemelson, and Mark Barad 2008 Understanding Trauma: Integrating Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25. Krug, E. G., et al. 2002 The World Report on Violence and Health. Lancet 360(9339): 1083-1088.
26. Makanjuola, R. O. A. 1987 Ode Oriî: A Culture-Bound Disorder with Prominent Somatic Features in Yoruba Nigerian Patients. Acta Psychiatr Scand 75(3): 231-236.
27. Merry, Sally Engle 2006 Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28. Mollica, R. F., et al. 2004 Mental Health in Complex Emergencies. Lancet 364(9450): 2058-2067.
29. Moran, Mary H., and M. Anne Pitcher 2004 The 'basket Case' and the 'Poster Child': Explaining the End of Civil Conflicts in liberia and Mozambique. Third World Quarterly 25(3): 501-519.
30. Patel, V. 1995 Explanatory Models of Mental Illness in Sub-Saharan Africa. Social Science & Medicine 40(9): 1291-1298.
31. Pedersen, D. 2002 Political Violence, Ethnic Conflict, and Contemporary Wars: Broad Implications for Health and Social Well-Being. Social Science & Medicine 55(2): 175-190.
32. Poindexter, H. A. 1953a An Analytical Study of 45, 000 Consecutive Admissions to a Clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa. Journal of the National Medical Association 45(5): 345-349.
33. Poindexter, H. A. 1953b Epidemiological Survey among the Gola Tribe in Liberia. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2(1): 30-38.
34. Prince, R. 1960. The "Brain Fag" Syndrome in Nigerian Students. British Journal of Psychiatry 106(443): 559-570.
35. Psychosocial Working Group 2003 Psychosocial Intervention in Complex Emergencies: A Conceptual Framework. Oxford: Refugee Studies Center.
36. Renner, Michael, Thomas Prugh and Worldwatch Institute. 2002 The Anatomy of Resource Wars. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute.
37. Reno, William 2004 Reconstructing Peace in Liberia. Pp. 115-141 in Durable Peace: Challenges for Peacebuilding in Africa. T. M. A. Ali and R. O. Matthews, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
38. Salama, P, et al. 2004 Lessons Learned from Complex Emergencies Over Past Decade. Lancet 364(9447): 1801-1813.
39. Sawyer, Amos 2005 Beyond Plunder: Toward Democratic Governance in Liberia. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
40. Silove, D., S. Ekblad, and R. Mollica 2000 The Rights of the Severely Mentally Ill in Post-Conflict Societies. Lancet 355(9214): 1548-1549.
41. Summerfield, Derek 1995 Addressing Human Response to War and Atrocity. In Beyond Trauma: Cultural and Societal Dynamics. C. F. R. Kleber and B. Gersons, ed. New York: Plenum Books.
42. Turner, V. W. 1967 The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
43. UNMIL 2005 Status of Restoration of State Authority and Recovery in Liberia. United Nations Mission in Liberia. C. A. Section.
44. van Ommeren, M., S. Saxena, and B. Saraceno 2005 Mental and Social Health During and After Acute Emergencies: Emerging Consensus? Bulletin of the World Health Organization 83: 71-75.
45. Weiss, M. G., et al. 2003 Mental Health in the Aftermath of Disasters: Consensus and Controversy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 191(9): 611-615.
46. Wheeler, M 1975 Travel Notes: A Liberian Medical Experience. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 48(5): 439.
47. Wintrob, R. M. 1968 Sexual Guilt and Culturally Sanctioned Delusions in Liberia, West Africa. American Journal of Psychiatry 125(1): 89.