The Modernization of Tradition: Thinking about Madness in Patna, India

Abstract

Thirty-nine educated middle-class residents of Patna, India, were interviewed about a vignette describing the behaviour of a seemingly mad man or woman. The interview explored their representations of traditional healing methods and of modern psychiatric notions. Besides explanations for mental illness and madness, the interviews also covered the reaction of families and neighbours to such phenomena. Respondents thought of different causes depending on the context, ranging from frustrated desires, shock and heredity to spirit possession.The majority's spontaneous preference for modern psychiatric treatment often co-exists with a faith in traditional healing. This faith is strengthened by their family's traditional preference. The results are discussed as an example of a process of modernization of common sense in which popularized scientific notions become anchored in the traditional setting of social structure and family life. The newly acquired knowledge forms a loosely organized social representation confronting a strongly objectified cultural representation of traditional thinking.

The Social Basis of Self-Reflection

“…This co-existence of multiple forms of knowledge in society, and consequently, in the individual minds of members of society engenders a state of 'cognitive polyphasia' (e.g. Wagner et al, 1999), which can, but does not necessarily, lead to self-reflection.…”

Identity and acculturation: The case of naturalised citizens in Britain

“…However, in times of globalisation, inter-cultural exchanges have proliferated leading to plurality and hybridisation of knowledge systems (e.g. Jovchelovitch, 2007;Jovchelovitch & Gervais, 1999;Wagner et al, 1999). The strength of the social representations theory is that it considers this diversity in people's ways of thinking stemming from their affiliation with multiple socio-cultural groups.…”

The "boomerang" effect of radicalism in Discursive Psychology: A critical overview of the controversy with the Social Representations Theory

“…This is common both to those who implicitly feel targeted because of their SRT based theoretical‐methodological options and those who more explicitly are unrecognized or considered illegitimate as regards the accuracy of their research, especially at methodological level, and for the scant treatment of problems of using investigative techniques as well as for the interpretation of the results, not always reasoned insofar as the contextual dynamics of interaction between research subjects and researcher are concerned. Emblematic in this respect is the rebuttal to Wagner, Duveen, Themel and Verma's 1999 research by Potter and Edwards, (1999).…”