The anthropological tradition in the philosophy of medicine

The tradition of anthropological medicine in philosophy of medicine is analyzed in relation to the earlier interest in epistemological issues in medicine around the turn of the century as well as to the current interest in medical ethics. It is argued that there is a continuity between epistemological, anthropological and ethical approaches in philosophy of medicine. Three basic ideas of anthropologically-oriented medicine are discussed: the rejection of Cartesian dualism, the notion of medicine as science of the human person, and the necessity of a comprehensive understanding of disease. Next, it is discussed why the anthropological movement has been superseded by the increasing interest in medical ethics. It is concluded that the present-day moral issues cannot be interpreted and resolved without clarification of the underlying anthropological images.     

Towards an anthropological psychiatry

The situation of present day psychiatry is described as being dominated by an empiricist perspective. The limitations of this perspective are analyzed and a rough sketch of the hermeneutical approach in psychiatry is offered. It is argued that a fully developed hermeneutical psychiatry implies a reference towards anthropological themes. Three of them, time, historicity and corporality, are investigated.     

The Hesychast method of prayer: its anthropological and symbolic significance

Hesychasm is an Eastern Christian method of prayer based on the invocation of the Name of Jesus and on the ‘descent of the noÛs (‘intellect’, ‘mind’ or ‘spirit’) into the heart’. This spiritual path, the method of which emerged in its most explicit form between the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries on Mount Athos, is the core of Christianity, since it consists in the inner practice of the fervent and continuous repetition of the holy Name and aims to achieve metánoia (‘change of the noÛs’) for the entire human being; and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through an incessant militia super terram comparable to the Muslim jihād al-akbar (‘great holy war’). A meditated analysis of some forms of symbolism which characterize the method in question plus a few comparisons between some central components of Hesychasm, Sufism and other traditional spiritual paths may be an adequate starting-point to understand more deeply the symbolic and anthropological aspects of this eminently ‘paradoxical’ ascetic discipline.     

Encountering the dream: Intersecting anthropological and psychoanalytical approaches

The human dream has been a central and contested therapeutic resource for the various schools of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. However, anthropology has been less concerned with human dreaming, though many anthropologists have studied indigenous peoples' dream theories as a consequence of the importance that such people gave to their dreaming. During the twentieth century there has been a fertile interaction between psychoanalytical approaches to dreaming and pertinent anthropological studies. This paper situates these interconnected disciplinary approaches to dreaming in the context of the historical development of thinking about culture and dreaming. The dream is considered as a multiple human resource. Discussion focuses on a fourfold approach to the dream: as therapeutic and existential encounter; as potential social knowledge; as cultural template; and finally as reflexive opportunity. Overall, the paper asserts the centrality of the dream as both a cultural and therapeutic resource.     

Ribot, Binet, and the emergence from the anthropological shadow

In the drive to establish a naturalistic psychology in France, anthropological assumptions about a hierarchy of physically determined racial groups with inherent psychological characteristics and about the nearly insurmountable retardation of primitive cultures permeated the work of the founder of French empirical psychology, Théodule Ribot. Assumptions about the correlation of brain mass and head size with intelligence affected Alfred Binet. The rise of sociology and challenges to existing theories of inheritance led Ribot to surrender fitfully some hereditarian assumptions. Binet's experimental caution and contemporary critiques of anthropometry tempered, but did not fully extinguish, his enthusiasm for psychophysical correlations.     

The reception of anthropological work in sociology journals, 1922-1951

The gradual disenchantment of American sociologists with the validity of ethnographic reports is examined by tracing the reception of anthropological work from 1922-1951 in three leading sociological journals: The American Journal of Sociology, The American Sociological Review, and Social Forces. Although prominent American sociologists initially welcomed Boasian syntheses of Native American and of exotic foreign cultures in the 1920s and 1930s, by the 1940s they began to wonder if the earlier assertions of cultural anthropologists about these exotic cultures were as shakily based as were their later assertions about cultural patterns in the United States.     

Religious experience and mental health: anthropological and psychological approaches

ABSTRACT

Moreira-Almeida, Sharma, van Rensburg, Verhagen and Cook have written a very comprehensive position statement pertaining to religion and psychiatry. While presenting a good overview of studies of religion, spirituality and mental health it does not include the important area of the health implications of religious experience which is the focus of this piece. I begin by discussing definitions of religious experience before examining the work of William James. The second part of this paper focuses upon specific religious experiences and psychopathology with a focus on mysticism, hallucinations and culture.     

Ontological difference,anthropological difference,and equal liberty

In this lecture, the author seeks to articulate in a systematic manner, although still tentative, the three ideas about which he has been developing his personal philosophy in the last period: “Ontological difference”, which after Heidegger and Derrida needs to become redefined in terms of a quasi‐transcendental problematic of alterity; “anthropological difference”, which covers the wholerange of oppositions which at the same time are inseparable from a representation of the “human” and impossible to define as invariable binaries; “equal liberty”, the combination of heterogeneous values which, since Ancient democracies and Modern republican insurrections, has installed the tension of emancipation at the heart of the political institution.