Psychological anthropology and medical anthropology: a brief history of ideas and concepts

Author(s):  
Cormac Sheehan

This paper sets out to briefly explore the definitions of two interrelated subfields of cultural anthropology; psychological anthropology and medical anthropology. This exploration will argue that culture and the individual are intimately intertwined. The theoretical evolution within psychological anthropology will be presented, from the bio-moral classifications of the ‘primitive’ to modern ‘experience near’ ethnographies, and fluid understanding of personhood. Theoretical and methodological approaches to mental health will be discussed briefly. Finally, the conclusion will ask the question: what is the future for medical and psychological anthropology?

2021 ◽  

This volume examines Arnold Gehlen’s theory of the state from his philosophy of the state in the 1920s via his political and cultural anthropology to his impressive critique of the post-war welfare state. The systematic analyses the book contains by leading scholars in the social sciences and the humanities examine the interplay between the theory and history of the state with reference to the broader context of the history of ideas. Students and researchers as well as other readers interested in this subject will find this book offers an informative overview of how one of the most wide-ranging and profound thinkers of the twentieth century understands the state. With contributions by Oliver Agard, Heike Delitz, Joachim Fischer, Andreas Höntsch, Tim Huyeng, Rastko Jovanov, Frank Kannetzky, Christine Magerski, Zeljko Radinkovic, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg and Christian Steuerwald.


2013 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
María Luz Rivera Fernández

El presente artículo se propone presentar un panorama de algunos testimonios literarios y filosóficos griegos acerca de los comienzos de la reflexión sociológica sobre la importancia de la música para la configuración armónica de la sociedad y para el mejoramiento personal del individuo en su seno. Según nuestra interpretación, estas dos nociones, que han sido posteriormente recuperadas en la historia del pensamiento utópico y en la sociología –que, desde finales del siglo XIX, ha usado el hecho musical como modelo social– encuentran sus raíces en la tradición de la educación griega, en las ideas del antiguo pitagorismo y en las interpretaciones sobre música y sociedad que incluyeron Platón y Aristóteles en sus obras políticas. Si nuestra hipótesis se confirma, y este artículo es parte de una investigación doctoral sobre la recepción de estas dos nociones en la historia de las ideas y de la sociología, la moderna sociología de la música (Musiksoziologie) dependería directamente de la paideia musical griega y de las ideas utópicas sobre la sociedad ideal a través de la música que provienen de la Grecia antigua.This article aims to present an overview of some Greek literary and philosophical statements about the beginnings of the sociological reflection on the importance of music for the shaping of an harmonious society and for the self-improvement of the individual within it. According to our interpretation, the origin of these two notions, which have been subsequently recovered both in the history of Utopian thought and in sociology –which has used music as a model social since the late 19th Century– can be traced in the tradition of Greek Education, in ancient Pythagoreanism and in the interpretations of music and society offered by Plato and Aristotle in his political works. If our hypothesis is confirmed, and this article is a piece of a PhD research on the reception of these two notions in the history of ideas and of sociology, the modern sociology of music (Musiksoziologie) would depend directly from the Greek musical paideia and from these utopian ideas about an ideal society through music stamming from Ancient Greece.


1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-67
Author(s):  
Олена Галян

У статті актуалізовано потребу втілення ідеї суб’єктності особистості школяра в педагогічний  процес  сучасного  навчального  закладу.  З  цією  метою  проаналізовано  основні  тенденції  становлення  уявлення  про  суб’єктну  сутність  особистості  у  вітчизняній  науковій  традиції.  Розвиток  поглядів  на  природу суб’єктності та її детермінацію розглянуто на основі існуючих періодизацій вивчення суб’єктної  проблематики.  Виокремлено  методологічні  підходи  до  розкриття  суб’єктних  проявів  особистості  –  діяльнісний та буттєвий. Це дало змогу диференціювати суб’єктнісні позиції особистості в кожному з них  та визнати потребу їх поєднання у витлумаченні суб’єктності як онтологічної даності. Визначено зміст  співвідношення  понять  «суб’єкт» і  «особистість», що  розширило уявлення  про феномен суб’єктності.  Історію становлення знання про суб’єктність презентовано у зв’язку з аналізом її вимірів, рівнів, сутнісних  ознак. Зроблено висновок про динаміку суб’єктності, що розгортається в часопросторі життєтворчості  особистості.  Окреслено потребу організації навчальної діяльності школярів на засадах гуманітарної освітньої  парадигми, яка забезпечує формування в них особистісного світосприйняття на основі зміни підходу до  процесу засвоєння знань. За таких умов суб’єктність виявлятиметься в побудові школярем власних смислів,  світоглядних позицій та мотиваційно-ціннісних настанов, активізуючи його можливість бути суб’єктом  діяльності, пізнання, а також власного життя. The article highlights the idea of the implement agency of the pupil’s personality in the pedagogical  process of a modern educational institution. For this purpose, the main tendencies of the formation of the notion of  the agency of the individual in the national scientific tradition are analyzed. The development of views on the  essence of agency and its determination is considered on the basis of existing periods of study of agency problems.  Methodological approaches to the disclosure of agency manifestations of personality are described – activity and  existential. This made it possible to differentiate the agency positions of the individual in each of them and to  recognize the need for their combination in the interpretation of agency as ontological essence. The paper outlines  the  relation  between  concepts  «agent»  and  «personality»  is  determined.  This  expanded  the  notion  of  the  phenomenon of agency. History of the formation of knowledge about agency is presented in connection with the  analysis of its nature, levels, essential features. A conclusion is drawn about the dynamics of agency, which unfolds  in time and space of personality creation.  The author highlights the need for a new perspective on educational activities based on the education  paradigm of humanitarian which ensures shaping pupils’ personal world view based on a shift in the approach to  knowledge acquisition. It is specified that in such conditions agency is manifested in working out one’s own  meanings,  shaping  one’s  own  world  view,  motivational  and  value  regulations  based  on  the  perception  of  information that is acquired as personal and meaningful one. This activates his ability to be an agent of activity,  cognition, and his own life.  


Author(s):  
А. А. Львов ◽  

This paper turns to contemporary discussions on the methodology in the history of philosophy and their general context of the humanities. A comparative analysis of the epistemological stances of the history of ideas (using the works by A.O. Lovejoy and I. Berlin, as well as H. Bloom’s studies on the Western canon) and conceptual history (from the pioneer in this area G. Teichmüller to R. Koselleck, Q. Skinner and J. Pocock) allows us to identify the peculiarities of both approaches as well as to reveal any points of converging and differences between them. Moreover, the article dwells on the main consequences of their use by the historians of philosophy as independent areas of research, such as cultural anthropology, study of literature, and linguistics. In addition, the paper discusses the canonization of forms of thinking as an efficient way of making a person identify him/her with a certain “imaginary community”, which simultaneously determines the subject’s way of thinking and is supported by him/her. The analysis performed allows us to infer the following: inquiries of historians of philosophy support the elaboration of paradigms and ideological forms of their representation; their methodological success consists in a specific character of their heuristic strategies that enables them to deal with the genuine genealogy of the present, in which contemporaneity finds its foundations. Thus, historians of philosophy are faced with the situation of hypertext as the research area is formed by the methodology of historical-philosophical inquiry. Such a heuristics brings contemporary historians of philosophy together with theorists of structuralism, which had previously dominated the studies of language and social sciences.


Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.А. ТУАЛЛАГОВ

Статья посвящена проблеме происхождения образа осетинского Николая как представителя божественных сил осетинских традиционных представлений. Актуальность представленной в статье темы определяется возникшим дискуссионным моментом в исследовании данного божественного образа, а также методологическими подходами при его реализации. Научная новизна исследования заключается в привлечении к анализу оригинальных нарративных источников, позволяющих верифицировать источниковую базу и определиться с обоснованностью проявившихся различных подходов в решении указанной проблемы. Целью исследования является верификация данных образа одного из представителей осетинского пантеона в контексте монотеистических и политеистических представлений. При проведении исследования применялись методы текстуального исследования источников, индуктивного и логического анализа на основе принципа историзма и системности изложения. Дополнительное обращение к анализу источников, в которых фигурирует данный образ, к историографии самой проблемы позволяет автору подтвердить прежде сформулированное им положение о Николае как боге, формирование образа которого имело давние истоки. Приложение к нему отдельных черт православного св. Николая продиктовано историей христианизации Алании под византийским влиянием, процесс которого был прерван. Политеистические представления продолжали действовать в традиционных представлениях осетин конца XIX–начала XX вв. Отмечаются конкретные примеры ошибочных трактовок некоторых археологических памятников и материалов письменных источников, а также методов и подходов в критике представленных ранее автором решений. Проведенный анализ сопрягается с вопросом об оригинальных монотеистических представлениях, искусственность приложения которых в современных условиях к истории алан объективно отвергается. The article is devoted to the problem of originating of the image of the Ossetian Nicholas as a representative of the divine powers of Ossetian traditional ideas. The relevance of the topic presented in the article is determined by the discussion point that has arisen in the study of this divine image, as well as methodological approaches of its implementation. The scientific novelty of the study is to use original narrative sources for analysis, which allow us to verify the source base and determine the validity of the various approaches that have appeared in solving this problem. The aim of the study is to verify the image data of one of the representatives of the Ossetian pantheon in the context of monotheistic and polytheistic representations. The study used methods of textual research of sources, inductive and logical analysis based on the principle of historicism and systematic presentation. The extensive analysis of the sources in which this image appears, the historiography of the problem itself, allows the author to confirm his previously formulated presumption on Nicholas as a god, whose formation had long-standing origins. Applying to him the individual features of the Orthodox St. Nicholas is dictated by the history of the Christianization of Alania under Byzantine influence, the process of which was interrupted. Polytheistic ideas continued to operate in the traditional representations of the Ossetians of the late XIX–early XXth centuries. Specific examples of erroneous interpretations of certain archaeological sites and materials from written sources, as well as methods and approaches in criticizing the solutions presented earlier by the author, are noted. The analysis is combined with the question of the original monotheistic «ideas», the artificiality of their application to the history of the Alans in modern conditions is objectively rejected.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Sordan Borghi ◽  
Igor Euflauzino ◽  
Maria Alice Silva Ferraz de Araújo

Introduction: Brazilian’s history of psychiatric care is complex and has some dark periods, but the country managed to get international recognition for its mental health policies in the last years. Those have been currently suffering setbacks. Purpose: Review the historical context of mental health in Brazil, assessing the changes made after 2016, and carry out a critical analysis of the current inclination. Methodology: literature and narrative review using official governmental documents. Results and Discussion: Through its history, Brazil’s had ups and downs in the care of mental health patients. After almost 30 years of policies that are centered around the individual, and not only the individual’s disease, the hospitalocentric model of care has been subtly making its comeback, together with normatives that revogue rights before acquired and corroborates with segregation of the mentally ill. Conclusions: The current changes in the Mental Health politics are not walking alongside the line with movements responsible for the implementation of a biopsychosocial care. It provokes and invites us to continue fighting for fair health programs and for the continuation of the Universal Health System


1961 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
F. H. Hinsley

After years of intense specialization in historical studies —in the history of ideas, of science, of historiography; in economic history, diplomatic history, administrative history, social history, legal history, world history, which last is fast becoming another specialism—there is perhaps no subject of historical enquiry that would not benefit from an attempt to amalgamate the results of all these disciplines. This is certainly true of international relations. The valuable labours of diplomatic historians have done no more than erect a scaffolding of established facts. In the work of understanding and explaining those facts we have not made much progress since von Ranke and Albert Sorel. Von Ranke's famous essay in interpretation, ‘The Great Powers’, was written more than 125 years ago, before the rise of specialist studies. For this reason, as well as on account of the preoccupation of his generation with national mission and divine intention in a universal scheme, it necessarily fell back on a mystical conception of the society of states, on a spiritual conception of the role of the individual state—on what must now be regarded as general history of the worst kind.


Author(s):  
Darryl Stellmach ◽  
Isabel Beshar

Despite broadly shared interest in the welfare of ‘precarious lives’, medical anthropology and medical humanitarianism are too often in tension. In this survey, we sketch a history of the two disciplines, then track three major patterns through which anthropologists approach the analysis of medical humanitarian efforts. Our three patterns frame medical anthropology as: 1) a critique of medical humanitarianism and its ties to colonialism and globalization, 2) a translation of medical humanitarianism and its associated lexicon, 3) and a reform of medical humanitarianism from the inside out. In highlighting the individual strengths of these three approaches, we argue for the value of medical anthropology – as both a mindset and a method – in health and humanitarian emergencies.


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