Book
Search for security: an ethno-psychiatric study of rural Ghana
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. • New York, N.y. • Published In 1970 • Pages: 478
By: Field, M. J. (Margaret Joyce).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a study of mental illness and health among the pilgrims to religious shrines in rural Ghana. It is divided into two parts: Background and Patients. The first provides a summary of the sociological setting, and the formation of basic personality traits. A more extended discussion is provided of spirit possession (‘dissociated personality’) and how the shrine priests use this altered state of consciousness to understand the patient's confessions and prescribe cures, in the form of sacrifices and purification. The nature of spirit possession and its frequency (especially among the Biblical prophets) are also discussed. The second part of the text is composed of 146 individual case histories divided into thirteen categories. The division is based upon either the cause of the illness (e.g., depression, fear, guilt, physical illness, etc.) or a description (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizo-affective psychosis, etc.). Short chapters on mental troubles of children, problems associated with middle age, and one on stable personalities are also presented. The best of the shrine priests are very efficient psychotherapists and Field readily acknowledges the success of their cures as an adjunct to and sometimes even instead of ‘European medicine.’ When sickness is caused by one's own wrong-doing or the ill-will of others (i.e., witchcraft) purification and protection by the shrine are a necessary part of the cure.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Personality disorders
- Life history materials
- Sorcery
- Spirits and gods
- Sacred objects and places
- Priesthood
- Prayers and sacrifices
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Akan
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Psychologist
- Psychiatrist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Martin Malone ; Marlene Martin ; 1974
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1937, Dec. 1955 - Feb. 1958
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Ghana
- NotesAdditional notes
- by M. J. Field
- Includes glossary
- Includes index
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Akan African peoples)