Apocalypse without anxiety: the end times for a Caribbean religion.

Affect has not been entirely established as a casual explanation in social science. The classic academic accounts of millennial movements emphasise both a period of 'unease' in the ambient atmosphere or 'of tension' at the actual start, and then a periodic culmination of fear or extreme emotion as the movement gains a following and the prophecy accelerates so much so, that 'apocalyptic expectation' equates with 'anxiety'. In the instance examined here, a new Caribbean religion, there may well have been identified anxieties around the time of the founder's visions, but once established the group have little strong emotion, negative or otherwise, although always facing the imminent end of all things.

The embodiment of a floating signifier.

As described in ethnographies, the 'floating signifiers' of social anthropology appear akin to similar categories in contemporary Western societies such as energy. Both may be embodied in actual experience. The practice of ritual orgasm, Pra-Na, and its relation to the group's cosmology, are intrinsic to a religio-therapeutic community in San Francisco whose ideas derive from reified Western notions of 'vital energy' along with popular Chinese medicine, and in which the second author conducted fieldwork involving participant observation between 2008 and 2009. The article examines closely the formulations of 'energy' in the Western world, and similarities to non-Western concepts such as Melanesian mana, and asks whether the experience of ritualised orgasm by members of the group leads to their notion of cosmic energy, or whether the understanding of embodied energy is purely arbitrary from a somatic perspective. With reference to Durkheim's ([1912]1976. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: Allen & Unwin) -effervescence, we suggest the former is most likely.

Carers and families: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study 3.

This paper looks at the role of Bangladeshi families in the provision of care and help seeking: the burden on family members but also their presumed role in the causation of illness. It deploys data deriving from an interview study examining understandings and health-related practices among British Bangladeshis with mental and physical illness and their carers. While families generally support the mentally ill, the emotional and physical burden on them can be extensive. Conflicts between individuals may result in accusations of sorcery, especially when envy is suspected. Regular travel between desh and bidesh attempts to maintain family unity and continues traditional understandings of serious sickness and disability.

The doctor's medicine and the ambiguity of amulets: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London--an interview study--1.

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more distant biomedical framework fits with the newer modernising 'High' Islam (literate, scripturalist, puritanical, unitarian, urban, clerical, perhaps masculinist), as opposed to Hindu-inflected traditional Sufi Islam in Bangladesh (peasant, popular, syncretic, saintly, magical, ecstatic and possibly more sympathetic to women's experience).

Did Christianity lead to schizophrenia? Psychosis, psychology and self reference.

Both geographically and historically, schizophrenia may have emerged from a psychosis that was more florid, affective, labile, shorter lived and with a better prognosis. It is conjectured that this has occurred with a reflexive self-consciousness in Western and globalising societies, a development whose roots lie in Christianity. Every theology also presents a psychology. Six novel aspects of Christianity may be significant for the emergence of schizophrenia-an omniscient deity, a decontexualised self, ambiguous agency, a downplaying of immediate sensory data, and a scrutiny of the self and its reconstitution in conversion.

Integration of sexual trauma in a religious narrative: transformation, resolution and growth among contemplative nuns.

The psychological consequences of sexual abuse are generally serious and enduring, particularly when the perpetrator is known and trusted by the survivor. This paper explores the experiences of five contemplative nuns who were sexually abused by priests and the spiritual journeys that followed. In the context of an ethnographic study of contemplative practice, participant observation and in-depth interviews were used to examine the ways that the nuns sought to make sense of their experiences through a long process of solitary introspection. The pursuit of meaning was shaped by religious beliefs relating to forgiveness, sacrifice, and salvation. Thus, trauma was transformed into a symbolic religious narrative that shaped their sense of identity. They were able to restructure core beliefs and to manage their current relationships with priests more securely. They described regaining their spiritual well-being in ways that suggest a form of posttraumatic spiritual growth. We conclude by discussing the findings in the light of the existing literature on the interaction of trauma and spirituality.

'Islamic fatalism': life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London--an interview study 2.

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London.

Depression and the medicalization of sadness: conceptualization and recommended help-seeking.

BACKGROUND: Critiques of the validity of the DSM diagnostic criteria for depressive disorder argue that it fails to differentiate between abnormal sadness due to internal dysfunction or depression (sadness without an identifiable cause), and normal sadness (sadness with a clear cause). AIMS: and METHODS: A population survey was undertaken in adult education centres in Spain aiming to explore beliefs about depression and normal sadness. Two hypothetical case vignettes portrayed individuals experiencing deep sadness, both fulfilling criteria for major depressive disorder (DSM-IV), one with a clear cause, the other without an identifiable cause. Three hundred and forty-four (344) questionnaires were obtained (95% response rate). RESULTS: Participants statistically significantly differentiated between the sadness-with-cause vignette, seen more frequently as a normal response, while the one without a cause was seen as pathological. Help-seeking behaviour recommendations followed this distinction: a medical option was statistically significantly more common when there was no cause for sadness. Socio-cultural variation in how people understand and deal with sadness was also found. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the importance of taking into account the context in which depressive symptoms occur as it seems that the absence of an appropriate context is what makes people conceptualize them as abnormal. It also raises questions about the lack of face validity of the current diagnostic classification for depressive disorder that exclusively uses descriptive criteria.

Religion and psychosis: a common evolutionary trajectory?

In this article we propose that schizophrenia and religious cognition engage cognate mental modules in the over-attribution of agency and the overextension of theory of mind. We argue similarities and differences between assumptions of ultrahuman agents with omniscient minds and certain ''pathological'' forms of thinking in schizophrenia: thought insertion, withdrawal and broadcasting, and delusions of reference. In everyday religious cognition agency detection and theory of mind modules function ''normally,'' whereas in schizophrenia both modules are impaired. It is suggested that religion and schizophrenia have perhaps had a related evolutionary trajectory.

The Dark Night of the Soul: causes and resolution of emotional distress among contemplative nuns.

An ethnographic study was conducted in the Spanish Monastery of Santa Mónica whose community consists of ten contemplative Augustinian nuns. Through participant observation and interviews the stresses encountered by the nuns and the coping strategies they deployed are explored in depth. It was found that symptoms that otherwise might have been described as evidence of a depressive episode were understood by the nuns within the framework of the so-called Dark Night of the Soul narrative: an active process of transforming emotional distress into a process of self-reflection, attribution of religious meaning and spiritual growth. We conclude by discussing the clinical implications of this religious narrative, highlighting the importance of incorporating existential issues into clinical practice.

Strange, incredible and impossible things: the early anthropology of Reginald Scot.

Reginald Scot has been acclaimed as an early rationalist for his critical consideration of witchcraft in 1584. At the same time, the Discoverie of Witchcraft appears organized much as later classic anthropological monographs. This article considers whether his methods and writing might indeed correspond to what we recognise as the procedures of medical or psychiatric anthropology.

Functionalists and zombis: Sorcery as spandrel and social rescue.

At one level, anthropologists remain functionalists in that they generally see acts and institutions as contributing to a greater social whole only through which they make sense. Thus, sorcery accusations have been traditionally interpreted in terms of maintaining social harmony and cohesion. In the case of Haitian zombification, the zombi seems a locally misidentified victim who is frequently mentally ill. As a hapless non-agent, the zombi cannot initiate the sorcery accusations, so how do we understand the recognition and rescue of the zombi, either in terms of social function or social action?

A cross-national study of the stigmatization of severe psychiatric illness: historical review, methodological considerations and development of the questionnaire.

Despite their potential significance for public policy and health provision in different societies, popular conceptualizations of and social responses to severe psychiatric illness remain relatively unexamined. Two general research procedures may be identified: (1) the anthropological approach uses ethnographic methods to look at explicit categorizations, and (2) the sociological approach employs quantitative survey methods to examine the public ;stigma' of psychiatric illness. This article reviews methodological and conceptual approaches to the study of stigma and describes the development of an ethnographically grounded questionnaire to examine ;stigmatization' from data in different cultures. The difficulties of achieving cross-cultural comparability of meaning are discussed and the psychometric properties of the instrument are presented.

Stigmatization of severe mental illness in India: Against the simple industrialization hypothesis.

BACKGROUND: Major international studies on course and outcome of schizophrenia suggest a better prognosis in the rural world and in low-income nations. Industrialization is thought to result in increased stigma for mental illness, which in turn is thought to worsen prognosis. The lack of an ethnographically derived and cross-culturally valid measure of stigma has hampered investigation. The present study deploys such a scale and examines stigmatizing attitudes towards the severely mentally ill among rural and urban community dwellers in India. AIM: To test the hypothesis that there are fewer stigmatizing attitudes towards the mentally ill amongst rural compared to urban community dwellers in India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An ethnographically derived and vignette-based stigmatization scale was administered to a general community sample comprising two rural and one urban site in India. Responses were analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistical methods. RESULT: Rural Indians showed significantly higher stigma scores, especially those with a manual occupation. The overall pattern of differences between rural and urban samples suggests that the former deploy a punitive model towards the severely mentally ill, while the urban group expressed a liberal view of severe mental illness. Urban Indians showed a strong link between stigma and not wishing to work with a mentally ill individual, whereas no such link existed for rural Indians. CONCLUSION: This is the first study, using an ethnographically derived stigmatization scale, to report increased stigma amongst a rural Indian population. Findings from this study do not fully support the industrialization hypothesis to explain better outcome of severe mental illness in low-income nations. The lack of a link between stigma and work attitudes may partly explain this phenomenon.