In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General declared publicly that culture counts in mental health care. This welcome recognition of the role of culture in mental health appears somewhat belated. In 1956, Frantz Fanon and Henri Collomb both presented culturally sensitive studies of the Thematic Apperception Test at the major French-language mental health conference. The contrast between these two studies and between the careers of Fanon and Collomb reveals some of the difficulties in creating cultural and gender sensitivity in psychiatry or psychology.

No abstract

No abstract

L'Oedipe Africain is a vital text from the early years of postcolonialism and transcultural psychiatry. Psychologist Marie-Cécile Ortigues and her philosopher husband, Edmond Ortigues produced this study after 4 years of clinical work (from 1962 to 1966) at the Fann Hospital in Dakar, Senegal. These were years of intense creativity at Fann, as Dr Henri Collomb set in motion a series of innovations that transformed a classical asylum into an open-door, culturally sensitive therapeutic center. L'Oedipe Africain confronts the transcultural project in the early post-colonial era with such candor and insight that it continues to speak to the profession today. The discussion of transference in situations of racial and cultural difference, and the theorizing of the cultural and universal dimensions to the psyche, emerge as enduring contributions of this text. The assumptions about history, tradition and modernity, and the gloss on female patients prove less durable.

No abstract