Psychiatry at the Frontier: Surveying Aboriginal Mental Health in the Era of Assimilation
'Aboriginal mental health' is a discursive formation which first emerged in the postwar heyday of Australian assimilationism, as the governmental problem of Indigenous difference was recast in normalising, psychological terms. Psychiatric interest in Aborigines grew from the 1950s onward,...
| Veröffentlicht in: | Health and History. - Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine, 1998. - 9(2007), 2, Seite 22-47 |
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| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2007
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| Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Health and History |
| Schlagworte: | Health sciences Behavioral sciences Economics |
| Zusammenfassung: | 'Aboriginal mental health' is a discursive formation which first emerged in the postwar heyday of Australian assimilationism, as the governmental problem of Indigenous difference was recast in normalising, psychological terms. Psychiatric interest in Aborigines grew from the 1950s onward, as a number of researchers-led by John Cawte of the University of New South Wales-conducted surveys of perceived behavioural maladjustment in Indigenous communities. This work claimed to illuminate, not just the neglected burden of Indigenous mental illness, but also the broader predicament of the Aboriginal mind at the frontier between a primitive past and a fully assimilated future. This paper critically analyses psychiatric constructions of the assimilating subject and prescriptions for Indigenous government in the name of mental health. |
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| ISSN: | 14421771 |
| DOI: | 10.2307/40111574 |