Disturbing Spirits: Mental Illness, Trauma, and Treatment in Modern Syria and Le

The Nile on eBay   Disturbing Spirits by Beverly A. Tsacoyianis

This book investigates the psychological toll of conflict in the Middle East during the twentieth century, including discussion of how spiritual and religious frameworks influence practice and theory.The concept of mental health treatment in war-torn Middle Eastern nations is painfully understudied. In Disturbing Spirits, Beverly A. Tsacoyianis blends social, cultural, and medical history research methods with approaches in disability and trauma studies to demonstrate that the history of mental illness in Syria and Lebanon since the 1890s is embedded in disparate-but not necessarily mutually exclusive-ideas about legitimate healing. Tsacoyianis examines the encounters between "Western" psychiatry and local practices and argues that the attempt to implement "modern" cosmopolitan biomedicine for the last 120 years has largely failed-in part because of political instability and political traumas and in part because of narrow definitions of modern medicine that excluded spirituality and locally meaningful cultural practices.Analyzing hospital records, ethnographic data, oral history research, historical fiction, and journalistic nonfiction, Tsacoyianis claims that psychiatrists presented mental health treatment to Syrians and Lebanese not only as a way to control or cure mental illness but also as a modernizing worldview to combat popular ideas about jinn-based origins of mental illness and to encourage acceptance of psychiatry. Treatment devoid of spiritual therapies ultimately delegitimized psychiatry among lower classes. Tsacoyianis maintains that tensions between psychiatrists and vernacular healers developed as political transformations devastated collective and individual psyches and disrupted social order. Scholars working on healing in the modern Middle East have largely studied either psychiatric or non-biomedical healing, but rarely their connections to each other or to politics. In this groundbreaking work, Tsacoyianis connects the discussion of global responsibility to scholarly debates about human suffering and the moral call to caregiving. Disturbing Spirits will interest students and scholars of the history of medicine and public health, Middle Eastern studies, and postcolonial literature.

FORMATHardcover LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Author Biography

Beverly A. Tsacoyianis is an associate professor of history at the University of Memphis.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Vernacular Healing in Greater Syria2. The Origins of Greater Syrian Medical Institutions3. Medical Missionaries and the Lebanon Mental Hospital, 1899–19834. Secular Healing and Ibn Sina Mental Hospital, 1922–20185. Literature, Civil War, and (Ef)facing Syrian and Lebanese HistoryConclusion

Review

"Tackling the history of mental illness in terms of the 'institutional dualism' of psychiatry and vernacular healing makes Disturbing Spirits refreshing and dynamic." —Kristina L. Richardson, author of Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World"Disturbing Spirits is a groundbreaking study written with remarkable clarity and empathy. Spanning over one hundred years of history and weaving together different disciplines, approaches, and a wealth of untapped primary sources, it tells the compelling story of the failure of the medical elites in Syria and Lebanon to impose modern psychiatry and erase local beliefs about the power of spirits to both cause and treat mental illnesses." —Sara Scalenghe, author of Disability in the Ottoman Arab World, 1500–1800"In this original exploration of how war in Syria and Lebanon over the last century contributed to enduring psychological instabilities in these countries, Beverly Tsacoyianis offers a valuable contribution to the study of the modern Middle East. . . . this book successfully opens new avenues of research that ethically engage social justice and disability rights' themes." —Choice"Disturbing Spirits is an interdisciplinary and rich study of the history of illness in Syria and Lebanon that provides various contributions to scholarship in the Middle East and trauma studies, medical humanities, and the overall history of health and healing." —Journal of the History of Behavioral Science"Tsacoyianis's book is a highly empathetic look at the history of mental illness treatment in Syria and Lebanon from the late nineteenth century to today. The importance of vernacular healing practices should not be neglected by historians simply because they are difficult to document or quantify." —H-Sci-Med-Tech

Long Description

This book investigates the psychological toll of conflict in the Middle East during the twentieth century, including discussion of how spiritual and religious frameworks influence practice and theory. The concept of mental health treatment in war-torn Middle Eastern nations is painfully understudied. In Disturbing Spirits , Beverly A. Tsacoyianis blends social, cultural, and medical history research methods with approaches in disability and trauma studies to demonstrate that the history of mental illness in Syria and Lebanon since the 1890s is embedded in disparate--but not necessarily mutually exclusive--ideas about legitimate healing. Tsacoyianis examines the encounters between "Western" psychiatry and local practices and argues that the attempt to implement "modern" cosmopolitan biomedicine for the last 120 years has largely failed--in part because of political instability and political traumas and in part because of narrow definitions of modern medicine that excluded spirituality and locally meaningful cultural practices. Analyzing hospital records, ethnographic data, oral history research, historical fiction, and journalistic nonfiction, Tsacoyianis claims that psychiatrists presented mental health treatment to Syrians and Lebanese not only as a way to control or cure mental illness but also as a modernizing worldview to combat popular ideas about jinn-based origins of mental illness and to encourage acceptance of psychiatry. Treatment devoid of spiritual therapies ultimately delegitimized psychiatry among lower classes. Tsacoyianis maintains that tensions between psychiatrists and vernacular healers developed as political transformations devastated collective and individual psyches and disrupted social order. Scholars working on healing in the modern Middle East have largely studied either psychiatric or non-biomedical healing, but rarely their connections to each other or to politics. In this groundbreaking work, Tsacoyianis connects the discussion of global responsibility to scholarly debates about human suffering and the moral call to caregiving. Disturbing Spirits will interest students and scholars of the history of medicine and public health, Middle Eastern studies, and postcolonial literature.

Review Quote

"Tackling the history of mental illness in terms of the 'institutional dualism' of psychiatry and vernacular healing makes Disturbing Spirits refreshing and dynamic." --Kristina L. Richardson, author of Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World

Excerpt from Book

Anglophone and Francophone scholars who have worked on healing in the twentieth century Middle East have largely studied either psychiatry or spirit-based healing, but they have rarely studied both and their connection to political changes. The development of psychiatric treatment in the Middle East has largely been a story told through French, British, or American roles in developing asylums, hospitals, and schools, or through regional efforts to combat foreign control, as with Mehmet ?Ali?s schools and army in Egypt. While historians focus on psychiatric institutions, anthropologists analyze the culturally specific role of jinn (spirits) and magic, with some brief forays into the nebulous area between Jinn-possession and psychiatric notions of mental illness. Anthropologist Celia Rothenberg, for example, notes a 1996 report where Palestinian Psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj (director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program [GCMHP]) considered political context important to etiology and treatment, but he did not ?recogniz[e] the role of sheikhs in ?curing? patients of their problems.? Scholars cannot fully comprehend the significance of psychiatric history to the development of the modern Syrian and Lebanese states without considering the political contexts of natural and supernatural understandings of mental illness. This study challenges the binary nature of research that separates foreign from local spaces of knowledge and practice, and it joins other histories of medicine and psychiatry that, as Matthew Heaton notes, ?break down artificial dichotomies between colonizer/colonized, traditional/modern, and science/belief at local and national levels.? These issues present conceptual difficulties in the Eastern Mediterranean as in other parts of the world, particularly in areas with minority groups and a history of repressive rule. One must avoid an oversimplified narrative of suffering and exploitation at the hands of cruel, racist, or imperialist doctors, as well as an oversimplified narrative of heroic resistance to the medical encounter. Steven Epstein?s concept of biopolitical citizenship moves beyond such binaries to highlight how ?political issues of justice and equality get worked out in a biomedical domain.? Applying this to the Syrian and Lebanese context can highlight how war, repression, sectarianism, and medical marginalizing of nonmedical practices produced silences and traumas. The binary of suffering and resistance is one challenge for historians. Another is balancing two simultaneous historiographic agendas. The first deconstructs positivist attitudes towards science and culture, as science is the product of complex cultural formations. The other agenda challenges essentialist views about static ?Islamic? cultures or sciences by showing they (like cultures and sciences outside the Islamic world) are dynamic and organic processes. The book frames arguments about healing in the later chapters within the traumatic legacies wrought by political upheavals addressed in the early chapters. It moves from discussion of health and treatment in the early twentieth century, World War I, and the French Mandate period to analysis of continuities and ruptures in treatment during and after political upheavals of the postcolonial periods, particularly the 1958 ?crisis? in Lebanon, the coups and Ba?athist repression in Syria, the Lebanese Civil War and the Syrian civil war. This postcolonial period (from the late 1940s to the post-9/11 Middle East) has witnessed numerous important political and economic changes in Greater Syrian society that continue to shape a diverse health arena.

Description for Sales People

* Disturbing Spirits explores how people in the Middle East receive mental treatment, how practitioners do their work, and what the government's role is: from supportive to hostile. * Tsacoyianis also investigates the psychological toll of conflict in the Middle East during the 20th century, including discussion of how the framework of Islam influences practice and theory. * This book will be of interest to scholars of biomedical studies, disability studies, and Middle Eastern studies

Description for Bookstore

* Disturbing Spirits explores how people in the Middle East receive mental treatment, how practitioners do their work, and what the government's role is: from supportive to hostile. * Tsacoyianis also investigates the psychological toll of conflict in the Middle East during the 20th century, including discussion of how the framework of Islam influences practice and theory. * This book will be of interest to scholars of biomedical studies, disability studies, and Middle Eastern studies

Details ISBN0268200726 Author Beverly A. Tsacoyianis Short Title Disturbing Spirits Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 0268200726 ISBN-13 9780268200725 Format Hardcover Subtitle Mental Illness, Trauma, and Treatment in Modern Syria and Lebanon Imprint University of Notre Dame Press Place of Publication Notre Dame IN Country of Publication United States Illustrations 13 Halftones, black and white Pages 370 Publication Date 2021-06-15 UK Release Date 2021-06-15 Edited by Arpita Mondal Birth 1955 Affiliation West Virginia University Position Associate Director Qualifications Ph.D. AU Release Date 2021-06-15 NZ Release Date 2021-06-15 US Release Date 2021-06-15 Publisher University of Notre Dame Press Alternative 9780268105334 DEWEY 362.2095691 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this

At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!

TheNile_Item_ID:159738795;