Sub-Project Trauma in Transcultural Perspective (MC 11.3)

Project Leaders: William S. Sax, Eva Ambos

What happens to psychological and psychiatric therapies when they are exported into contexts where they are unfamiliar and incongruent with local ideas and practices? When do such incongruities lead to the blockage of transcultural flows? To the hybri-dizaton of theories or practices? To the replacement of old paradigms by new ones?
In order to investigate this question, this project analyzed 1) the introduction of traumatology into Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and its effects on local beliefs and practices related to mental healing, and 2) the pathologization of therapeutic forms of trance and possession among South Asian migrants in the United Kingdom.