Explores some of the research that describes the process of growing up to be violent, reviews a typical conflict-resolution program in the schools, and describes an action research project that ...provides some pointers on the development of conflict-resolution programs that address the problem of violence in greater depth. (SM)
In exploring peace education in South Africa, the paper reviews a research report on the subject, focusing on the needs of children and youth and on the range of programmatic and research initiatives ...already working in this field. Summarizes three issues: recommended policy guidelines related to peace education for South-African children, cautionary thoughts, and research directions. (SM)
Examines whether efforts by donor agencies and Third World governments toward achieving basic education for all will lead to further development of peace education in Africa; whether the outcomes of ...the 1990 Education for All (EFA) conference in Thailand will promote positive peace; and whether the new EFA strategy will lead to a self-reliant development for Third World countries. (SM)
As various trends for globalization spread worldwide, it is imperative that Japan not falls behind the development. However, it must be said that in many ways, we Japanese are not so adept at ...responding to globalization. Precisely for this reason, we must make a very conscious and active effort. The key to globalization is to take up the challenge posed by problems of communication among different cultures in broad sense. This, in turn, can be broken down to the following tasks:(1)to improve our ability to communicate with foreign persons in narrow sense;(2)to make a sustained effort to deepen our understanding of different cultures; and (3)to maintain self-awareness of our basically homogeneous society and to be able to relate and adapt to a more diversified society. In order to realize these tasks:(1)we can achieve communication with foreigners by transcending the culture of shame and breaking out of our customary reticence, by overcoming our complex about English, and actively utilizing Information Technology. (2)We can achieve better understanding of other cultures by being genuinely interested and concerned about other countries and cultures by study-ing deeply "DOs & DON' Ts" that are distinctive to each country and specialized technical skills, interpersonal skills and conceptualizing skills. Thus, although it will take some time and depending on effort and determination, I believe that we Japanese have the basic ethos and the necessary ability to take part in globalization actively, while preserving our own culture and values.
Cultural Aspects of Psychotherapy Wittkower, E.D.; Warnes, H.
Psychotherapy and psychosomatics,
01/1974, Letnik:
24, Številka:
4/6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper deals with the relevance of cultural factors to the application of psychotherapy. It is divided into two parts: cultural psychotherapy and crosscultural psychotherapy. Cultural ...psychotherapy. Despite certain universal features, marked differences as regards intensity, quality and depth, exist in the forms of psychotherapy practised. Preferences in their choice crossculturally depend on differences in etiological views and on cultural and ideological differences. In many non-industrialized areas of the world, the belief prevails that mental illness is due to supernatural and preternatural forces, e.g. to angry deities, witchcraft or sorcery. In those countries shamans, priests and witchdoctors, in the accepted view, are much better qualified to deal with mental illness than scientifically trained doctors. The procedures which these healers adopt are partly of a physical and partly of a psychological nature. Factors of potential psychotherapeutic value inherent in their procedures include: naming of the supposed supernatural agent, suggestion reinforced by the high prestige of the native healers, projection of internal badness on the scapegoat or any other sacrificial animal, displacement of attack by killing an animal in lieu of a person, and penance by sacrifice. Because in many developing countries reliance on group approval predominates over superego pressure, therapeutic procedures are usually carried out in groups. The psychotherapeutic effect of cult ceremonies has been documented. Owing to the emphasis on individualism, rational thinking, scientific idolatry and tolerance of dissent, psychoanalysis found a fertile ground in the United States. It was rejected in authoritarian countries, such as Soviet Russia and Japan. Russian "pathogenic psychotherapy', and German 'autogenic training' ignore the unconscious, are ego directed and have a drill quality. In accordance with Marxist theory, work therapy figures prominently among psychotherapeutic measures in the Soviet Union. It is conceivable that the yoga component in autogenic training and the mysticism in Jung's analytic psychology and in existential psychotherapy appeal to the mystic leanings of Germans. In accordance with the teaching of Zen Buddhism, Morita therapy practised in Japan aims at acceptance of mental suffering rather than at restoration of mental health. Crosscultural psychotherapy. Application of Western psychotherapeutic procedures to non-Western societies gives rise to difficulties. Divergent views expressed on this matter are: (a) that psychotherapeutic methods are universally applicable; (b) that understanding of each individual must be based on assessment of his specific experiences, and (c) that identical nationality and cultural background facilitate the psychotherapeutic process. If mother tongue of patient and psychotherapist differ, finer nuances presented in the patient's material may be missed by the psychotherapist, misunderstandings may occur and the newly acquired language may be used by the patient for defensive purposes. Difficulties mount still further if the world view of the psychotherapist grossly diverges from that of the patient. Suspicion and distrust of the white intruder in this case may be rife. Consequently, workers in the field dispute the possibility of applying Western type of psychotherapy to non-Western uneducated persons. For a long time, in developing countries, the services of traditional healers in the treatment of the mentally ill will be indispensable. As the world view of the indigenous population undergoes a change towards Westernization, the following interim steps have been suggested: (a) to acquire skills and techniques to overcome the suspicion and distrust of the Western or Western trained psychiatrist; (b) to establish collaboration between psychiatrists and traditional healers; (c) to adapt Western methods to the cultural climate in which they operate; (d) to offer a rationale for the application of folk healing procedures and to integrate them into Western methods, and (e) to hand over increasingly the care of the mentally ill in developing countries to foreign-trained indigenous psychiatrists.
Folklore psychiatry as the study of ideas, beliefs and practices concerning psychiatric conditions and their treatment maintained by popular tradition in 'occidental' cultures, is defined. Folklore ...psychiatry is differentiated from ethnopsychiatry, which concerns itself with psychiatry as practised in different cultures by the shaman or medicine-man, on the one hand, and on the other hand, from the study of the ways of the quack, the 'fake' and the humbugger. A series of studies undertaken at the Instituto Peruano de Estudios Psiquiâtrico-Sociales (Peruvian Institute for Socio-Psychiatric Studies) are quoted and, from them, the possibility of outlining some of the factors being instrumental to the success of folklore therapy substantiated in many difficult cases. Among them, the use of practices like aversion therapy, the utilization of native plants and drugs unknown to our pharmacopoeia, etc., but, most important of all, the intuitive and very wise application of different psychotherapeutic devices. Attention is especially paid to the use of many forms of group, patient-healer relationships, hypnosis and psychotherapy: family psychotherapy, psycho and sociodrama, community and social psychotherapy, etc. are commented upon. An example is offered reporting the treatment and cure of chronic alcoholism by native healers in the Northern coast of Peru. The need is emphasized to investigate these facts all over the world and the urgency to incorporate the knowledge of folklore psychiatry into the pregrade medical curriculum and especially into the residency programs of psychiatry.
Psychotherapy in Africa Lambo, T. Adeoye
Psychotherapy and psychosomatics,
01/1974, Letnik:
24, Številka:
4/6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Psychotherapy in Africa, especially in the traditional era, formed part and parcel of the social fabric. It is therefore as old as any of the institutional aspects of African civilization. It ...pervades almost every aspect of life and today constitutes an important and built-in component of the African social and religious life. It must not be forgotten that Reik (1931), in his psychoanalytical studies of ritual, regards the mythological world of the primitives as 'older than religion', and, according to him, 'it is one of the oldest wish-compensations of mankind in its eternal struggle with external and internal forces'. Historically, Reik considers the mythological approach as 'of the highest importance for our understanding of the first psychological conflicts of primitive peoples'. In this context and within the African social, cultural, and historical life, psychotherapy can be broadly defined as specific and specialized efforts directed towards, or actions taken for the purpose of, positively influencing the human mind, especially his thought, feeling and behaviour with the object of promoting good mental health and human wellbeing. Its ultimate objective is to effect a measurable change in the personality. The methods employed for this purpose are multiple and they vary from individual to group, from a variety of magico-religious rites to well-formulated and articulated quasimathematical procedures, invested with a fanciful, poetic, and most attractive gab, known as Ifa; from the use of hypnosis, trances, suggestion and persuasion to mystic invocations to the spirits. Thus men and spirits are brought together in mystic and emotional relationship 'in a joint endeavour to conserve and promote good mental health by a ritualistic technique as the link with the providential sources of life...' The cultures of Africa recognize the different layers of the human psyche and, consequently, the existence of, and distinction between, 'conscious' and 'unconscious' forces which determine human behaviour. There is, in many of these cultures, a bewildering array of vast and complicated systems of psychotherapeutic practices which, in spite of their diversity, emphasize that reality consists in the relation not of men with things, but of men with other men, and of all men with spirits. The attitudes towards disease in general, and mental illness in particular, and the methods of coping with it, vary from culture to culture. In Africa, the concepts of health and disease can be regarded as constituting a continuous transition with almost imperceptible gradations. In these and related cultures, the determinants of health and disease are conceptualized holistically. Psychotherapy, therefore, within the African context, is an indispensable phase of a variety of institutionalized processes to promote human well-being: 'averting the wrath of gods or spirits, making rain, purifying streams or habitations, improving sex potency or fecundity or the fertility of fields and crops – in short, it is bound up with the whole interpretation of life' (my own italics). Thus, it is important to realize that psychological medicine has more clearly a function of the culture than of environmental conditions. According to Ackerknecht (1942), primitive medicine, of which psychotherapy is its cardinal and most powerful armamentarium, 'is not a queer collection of errors and superstitions, but a number of living unities in living cultural patterns, quite able to function through the centuries in spite of their fundamental differences from the Western pattern ...' The diagnosis of psychological or emotional disorder in tribal Africa involves many complicated processes. In these and related cultures, the patient is usually the centre of a whole system of social and interpersonal tensions. The entire management of the patient is, as a result, dictated by diagnosis which is deemed to unravel: (1) the immediate cause of the illness; (2) the remote cause, and (3) the form of therapy that should be followed: expiatory sacrifice and/or other psychotherapeutic manoeuvres, usually involving the practitioner, the patient, his family and the community. With this important historical and cultural background, it is important to appreciate that psychotherapy in Africa remains a sine qua non in all activities in which human suffering or distress has to be alleviated. It is a system of specialized techniques practised by men and women who are greatly respected within the community – men and women who, through self-denial, dedication, prolonged meditation and training, have 'discovered' the secrets of the healing art and its magic. These practitioners are thought to possess mystical characteristics, charisma and affectionate eccentricity. A good many of them who have worked in close contact with us have been known to display extraordinary qualities of mind – common-sense, great eloquence, tough-mindedness, great boldness and unrivalled capacity for deep insight into human problems. In the presence of incontrovertible empirical evidence, they are regarded as an expert in almost every facet of individual and community life. It is within this cultural background that modern and scientifically geared psychotherapy has been practised in Africa with the introduction of modern psychiatric practice. This paper deals, therefore, with many aspects of group psychotherapy which contrasts in many ways with that of Western group psychotherapy. Group psychotherapy, according to our theory and practice, considers the family and the peer group as the strategic focus, and both are regarded as carriers and transmitters of societal mores and social values. Group psychotherapeutic activities are normal, but scientifically 'structured', extensions of group interactions in the normal life of individuals. These activities mobilize all internal and external dynamic forces for réintégration and normalization of the personality.
Jedno od mogućih područja primjene sociologije u gospodarstvu jest marketing. Ta mogućnost ostvaruje se time što se marketing, poput sociologije, određuje kao humanistička disciplinu. Takvo određenje ...marketinga temelji se na kategoriji "potreba". Naime, razvoj strategije marketinga određene poslovne organizacije moguć je samo na temelju poznavanja potreba kupaca kojima je proizvod i namijenjen. Kako marketing nije znanstvena disciplina autohtone istraživačke prakse, već oblik konkretne poduzetničke aktivnosti koji u sebi uključuje različite korpuse znanja iz različitih područja ljudskih djelatnosti, on za tu svrhu uvelike koristi i metodologiju razvijenu u okviru socijalnih znanosti. U najvećem dijelu zajednički nazivnik pod kojim on to čini naziva se istraživanje tržišta. Do najčešće primjene sociologije u području istraživanja tržišta dolazi zbog zahtjeva za segmentacijom tržišta i izborom ciljne grupe proizvodu te razrade odgovarajuće propagandne strategije. Za taj cilj sociologija koristi uobičajene metode razvijene u okviru tzv. primijenjenih socijalnih znanosti, čiji se nastanak vezuje za kolumbijsku sociološku školu na čelu s Paulom Lazarsfeldom. Mogući problemi koji se javljaju prilikom upotrebe metodologije razvijene u okvini socijalnih znanosti u području marketinga potječu iz različitosti epistemološkog konteksta u kojem se razvila njezina metodologija i konteksta u kojem se odvija tržišno istraživanje.
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