book chapter

The Whites think too much: psychoanalytic investigations among the Dogon in West Africa

Atlantis VerlagZurich • Published In 1963 • Pages:

By: Parin, Paul, Morgenthaler, Fritz, Parin-Matthey, Goldy, Schütze, Frieda.

Abstract
This work is a psychoanalytical analysis of Dogon personality made on the basis of conversations with French-speaking informants and the subsequent interpretations of their responses to the standardized Rorschach “ink blot” test. Informants were selected from the Sanga village group as representative of the traditional Dogon culture. All were bi-lingual in French and Dogon. In the initial stage of the field work one-hour paid conversations were arranged with the informants in which rapport was established between the author/analyst and his subjects, and general background life history information obtained. These conversations occupy the major part of this source, pp. 70-368. This is followed by a more intensive psychoanalysis of thirteen selected informants, and a briefer analysis on one hundred individuals on the basis of their responses on the Rorschach cards. The author concludes with a generalized psychological profile of the Dogon in terms of modern psychoanalytical theory.
Subjects
Observation in research
Interviewing in research
Tests and schedules administered in the field
Adjustment processes
Personality development
Family relationships
Personality traits
Life history materials
culture
Dogon
HRAF PubDate
2000
Region
Africa
Sub Region
Western Africa
Document Type
book chapter
Evaluation
Creator Type
Psychologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
John Beierle ; 1987
Field Date
1960
Coverage Date
1960
Coverage Place
Sanga, Bandiagara Circle, Mopti Region, Mali
Notes
By Paul Parin, Fritz Morgenthaler and Goldy Parin-Matthey
Translation of: Die Weissen denken zuviel; Psychoanalytische Untersuchungen bei den Dogon in Westafrika
The original German text is not included
Because of poor quality, many graphics are not included
Includes bibliographical references (p. 545-550)
Translated for the HRAF files by Frieda Schütze
LCCN
63048924
LCSH
Dogons (African people)