Clinics and Cures
In this course we will study the global circulation of psychiatric ideas and practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the first part of the course, we will study the rise of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in the context of European colonial expansion. In the second, we will trace how these ideas and practices intersected with prevailing conceptions of health, disease, mind, and body in East Asia. We will learn about the transformative effects of Euro-American and Japanese imperialisms and the new roles of political organizing and state welfare systems in shaping approaches to treatment and care. Topics include individual versus social cures and challenges of translating mental health discourses across socio-cultural contexts. (Counts for HSMT credit.)