ANTH3280 6.0 Psychiatric Anthropology & Social Stress

Time: Thurs 8:30-11:30 ACW 304

This course is concerned with furthering the mutual interaction and utility of Medical Anthropology and modern Psychiatry, with regards to both our own multicultural society and the global community. The course particularly will focus on Psychiatry as a 'profession' or 'game of truth' – one intimately shaped by wider historical and socio-cultural factors, and will explore the nature, sources and validity of its 'knowledge' and practice, as well as its role in the wider arena of International Health as a truly Cultural Psychiatry. Canadian and other forms of Psychiatry, as well as their 'commodity-trade' and cultural sensitivity, will be examined. Up-to-date information on selected idioms of distress, disorders, public policies, and controversies also will be provided, as we head towards the DSM-V era.

Format: Three seminar hours