African Pharmakon
Explores how psychiatry in Ghana was never just about medicine; it was about migration, exile, and the politics of who gets to stay and who must be cast out. For centuries, mental distress in West Africa has been subject to a mix of healing, harming, ritual, and regulation. In African Pharmakon , Na...
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| Format: | Online |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
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University of Chicago Press
2026
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| Online-Zugang: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110074 |
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| _version_ | 1869526045682565120 |
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| author | Quarshie, Nana Osei |
| author_browse | Quarshie, Nana Osei |
| author_facet | Quarshie, Nana Osei |
| author_sort | Quarshie, Nana Osei |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Explores how psychiatry in Ghana was never just about medicine; it was about migration, exile, and the politics of who gets to stay and who must be cast out. For centuries, mental distress in West Africa has been subject to a mix of healing, harming, ritual, and regulation. In African Pharmakon , Nana Osei Quarshie questions conventional narratives about colonial psychiatry. Instead of displacing African therapeutic traditions, he argues, European psychiatric institutions in fact built upon them, adapting long-standing techniques of social control and healing. With a focus on Ghana, Quarshie explores the shifting landscape of West African mental health practices, tracking their transformation from shrine-based rituals to colonial asylums and modern psychiatric institutions. Combining extensive archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, including the first scholarly examination of patient records from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Quarshie identifies five enduring techniques that have shaped the treatment of mental distress: spiritual pawning, logging, manhunting, mass expulsion, and pharmacotherapy. Rejecting the simplistic opposition of Indigenous healing versus colonial oppression, African Pharmakon provides a nuanced account of how psychiatric care in Ghana became a tool of empowerment as well as exclusion. This pioneering study reframes our understanding of psychiatry and mental health governance in West Africa, past and present. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-172236 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| publisherStr | University of Chicago Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1722362026-02-24T05:17:41Z African Pharmakon Quarshie, Nana Osei Mental illness Treatment Ghana History Psychiatry thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology Explores how psychiatry in Ghana was never just about medicine; it was about migration, exile, and the politics of who gets to stay and who must be cast out. For centuries, mental distress in West Africa has been subject to a mix of healing, harming, ritual, and regulation. In African Pharmakon , Nana Osei Quarshie questions conventional narratives about colonial psychiatry. Instead of displacing African therapeutic traditions, he argues, European psychiatric institutions in fact built upon them, adapting long-standing techniques of social control and healing. With a focus on Ghana, Quarshie explores the shifting landscape of West African mental health practices, tracking their transformation from shrine-based rituals to colonial asylums and modern psychiatric institutions. Combining extensive archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, including the first scholarly examination of patient records from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Quarshie identifies five enduring techniques that have shaped the treatment of mental distress: spiritual pawning, logging, manhunting, mass expulsion, and pharmacotherapy. Rejecting the simplistic opposition of Indigenous healing versus colonial oppression, African Pharmakon provides a nuanced account of how psychiatric care in Ghana became a tool of empowerment as well as exclusion. This pioneering study reframes our understanding of psychiatry and mental health governance in West Africa, past and present. 2026-02-24T05:17:40Z 2026-02-24T05:17:40Z 2026-02-23T13:25:55Z 2025 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110074 9780226839172 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/172236 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/110074/1/9780226839172.pdf University of Chicago Press University of Chicago Press 10.7208/chicago/9780226839172.001.0001 10.7208/chicago/9780226839172.001.0001 decd55ad-cee8-4380-ad0e-0ead8a496f4d 9780226839172 University of Chicago Press 336 open access |
| spellingShingle | Mental illness Treatment Ghana History Psychiatry thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology Quarshie, Nana Osei African Pharmakon |
| title | African Pharmakon |
| title_full | African Pharmakon |
| title_fullStr | African Pharmakon |
| title_full_unstemmed | African Pharmakon |
| title_short | African Pharmakon |
| title_sort | african pharmakon |
| topic | Mental illness Treatment Ghana History Psychiatry thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology |
| topic_facet | Mental illness Treatment Ghana History Psychiatry thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110074 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT quarshienanaosei africanpharmakon |