I’ve spent my entire adult life on islands – 6 years on Taiwan and 23 years on Oahu (Hawaii) – and all of the professional knowledge that I have today was learned on those islands.
When I arrived on Taiwan in the summer of 1989, I only knew one word in Chinese – xiexie, “thank you” – and basically did not know anything about the history of any Asian society.
I’ve learned a lot since then, and I’ve also seen so much change since then.
I just tried out “Wordle” (http://www.wordle.net/). It’s a “toy” which creates “word clouds” of text. You input the text (or a link to a web page) and the program creates a “word cloud” that gives “greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”
Apparently some people are putting this to academic/educational use by inputing lots of text and analyzing which words appear most frequently. . . I don’t know about that, but it does look pretty cool.
In any case, it looks like I must write about “narratives” a lot. . .
I came across this fascinating article in the August 12, 1962 edition of The Nation from Burma. It is the text of a lecture given by Dr. Khin Maunt Latt on psychiatry in Burma. It is filled with interesting details about the history and practice of psychiatry in modern Burma.
The author’s perspectives are also fascinating, and it is also interesting to see read this article in the context of the times, as it was written shortly after Ne Win had taken control of the country and had attacked the worship of nats, a topic which the author concludes this lecture with.
I am quoting here some of the points that are made about indigenous beliefs. For the full text of the article, click on the icons below.
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The majority of Burmese believe in nats, guardian spirits, astrology, witchcraft and evil spirits. Even the more educated from the higher socio-economic class are not free from these superstitions because of their upbringing. While their education and scientific knowledge make them less inclined to believe in these deities and practices, their cultural heritage working in another direction makes them susceptible at times. As a result, there is often a conflict between the habit of believing and the desire not to believe. While in health, it is relatively easy for these people to be determined but at times of sickness, they often relapse.
Burmese parents have a habit of frightening their children with horror tales of witches, ghosts and spirits whenever the children misbehave. This sort of upbringing fosters anxiety in the child’s mind while the child’s personality is still in the process of shaping itself and when it is still soft and pliable.
The cultural background also colors the symptoms. In the West, patient’s suffering from delusions believe that they are watched by an electronic eye or that their minds and bodies are controlled by radioactive rays. In our country, patients believe that they are bewitched or possessed by an evil spirit.
One businessman, who is a university graduate, came to us in a state of acute anxiety, after he had ordered his workmen to cut an ancient tree near his factory. At night he had nightmares in which the spirit living in the ancient tree showed his anger to him for having removed his dwelling. From these nightmares, he often woke perspiring profusely with a pounding heart and choky feeling. He believed that he was possessed by the spirit.
I would like to discuss both the Western and the Burmese way of treatment.
In the Western way, we use both physical and psychological methods. In the former method, ECT, tranquilizers, anti-depressants and sedatives are most commonly used. In the psychological method, because of the shortage of specialists and the time-consuming nature of the method, psycho-analysis and psycho-therapy are seldom practiced, but superficial psycho-therapy of a supportive nature are widely used.
The Burmese method, I must admit I have very little knowledge of. As far as I can see, there are three kinds of therapists: (1) Spiritual healers (2) Witch doctor and (3) The indigenous medicine man.
The spiritual healer is usually a monk, but sometimes a layman, with a religious reputation. He operates by decorating the household shrine with flowers and lit-candles, and the reciting of loud prayers, with repeated reference to the patient’s name. Then he sprinkles blessed water over the patient as well as all over the house. After the saying of prayers and the counting of beads, he hangs the rosary over the patient’s neck with the loudly spoken prayer that the sick man will get well soon.
The witch doctor, unlike his counterpart from Africa, does not wear any fancy ceremonial dress. He goes about by preparing a sacrificial offering of a coconut, two or three bunches of bananas and other things to his patron spirit. He then commands the evil spirit to leave the supposedly possessed body of the victim. He sometimes uses his magic cane or he may slap his patient with water that has been chanted over with mantras. He then makes his patient drink the water. He may light scores of oil lamps round the patient with the suggestion that the evil spirit has been driven away and that the patient will get well soon.
Although the steps of the above two methods differ greatly, I see a common psychological rationale in them. Both of them try to establish a strong patient-therapist relationship by the instillation of confidence in the patient for the therapist through the observation of various impressive religious and other rituals, with the repeated suggestion that the patient will become more pliable. This is something like supportive psycho-therapy in crude form. I have no doubt that these methods have some value in some of the acute neurotic illnesses, even dramatic recovery is possible.
But I am quite certain that they cannot and will not make any impression on the psychotic cases.
The third kind of therapists uses herbs, shrubs, and other indigenous medicines. He may supplement the medicines with diet, such as plum jam, to restore the mental equilibrium. Some medicine men combine their method with spiritual healing or witchcraft, but a spiritual healer cannot practice witchcraft and vise versa.
Sometimes, the medicine man uses a strong purgative to drive away the illness. We have quite a few cases admitted to the hospital quite weak, exhausted and dehydrated from diarrhea because of the purging treatment.
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The author then concludes the article by stating the following:
Now that the Revolutionary Government has banned films on nats and other supernatural beings, and has done everything to discourage belief in these beings, I believe that these superstitions will gradually fade away.
With increasing effort to re-educate and re-orientate the masses, the increased psychiatric facilities, continuous improvement of new drugs and better social security, I foresee that the Burmese mentally ill will soon be able to benefit from early, prompt, scientific and energetic psychiatric treatment, thus increasing their chance of recovery to a normal mental life and happiness.
Here are a couple of more advertisements from SHE magazine in the 1960s. One is for United Bank Ltd. and the other is for Pond’s Cream. They are both emphasizing change and being “modern,” but the target audiences are clearly not the same.
I stumbled across a Pakistani magazine for women – SHE. I think it is actually still published, but the issues I saw were from the 1960s. While fashions had been global for decades by this point, there is still something about the 1950s-1960s which feels special to me. I think that it is the fact that this was the beginning of the postcolonial era, and the global (capitalist) fashions at that this time were embraced by many peoples in newly independent countries who were optimistic about the future. Perhaps I am imagining this, but I always detect a sense of excitement in the images from this period, it is as if the people at that time truly felt like they were living in a new age of opportunity. The future looked bright, especially if you were young and hip. Unfortunately, the future ended up being pretty dark in many places due to war and religious conflicts, etc. But that makes the 1960s “global-chic” images all the more interesting.
I’ll post more later, but here are a few to start. The quality isn’t great, as I had to use a camera rather than a scanner. But I will start with the image which first caught by attention. Somehow I just can’t connect this woman’s expression with house paint. . . Is that really what she is thinking about?
Then there is this advertisement for tires which I think speaks for itself.
And then finally an advertisement for fabric. This is what the text at the bottom of the image says:
“Go watch the big golden sun drown itself in the sea. . . Listen to the song of the homing boatmen as they head for the shore. . . Surrender yourself to the breeze that yearns to embrace you. . . But then linger awhile. . . and think of the fabrics that mix and match with all your moods!”
I’ll be taking a break for the next month and will not be posting anything new until the beginning of August. See you then.
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