3. Africa

Abstract

The Egyptian Nubians believe that if certain actions are engaged in before the appearance of the moon indicating the beginning of the lunar Arabic month, harm will befall an individual undergoing a "crisis" rite. These beliefs and practices pertaining to them, the mushahara taboos, are described by J. G. KENNEDY and discussed in terms of their contribution to the theory of taboo. F. PISZTORA presents four cases of phasic psychoses which he observed in Algiers. He examines the influence of the cultural milieu on the form of expression and interpretation of the psychotic illness and arrives at the con clusion that grandiose religious preoccupations in patients in a Moslem culture do not necessarily indicate the presence of paranoid or paraphrenic psychoses. A. ZEMPLENI describes a model which is common to the various traditional therapeutic approaches among the Wolof and the Lebou in Senegal. Emphasis is placed in his study on the principles involved in the therapies rather than on the procedures themselves. In their previous studies P. PARIN and his co workers have applied the psychoanalytic method and psychoanalytic concepts to an understanding of the personality development and structure of the Dogon people in Mali (see also: Transcultural Psychiatric Research, no. 14: 33-35; Transcultural Psychiatric Research, 1 (1964): 51-54; Transcultural Psychiatric Research, 5 (1968): 160-162). In continuation of these studies Parin has recently turned his scientific interest to the impact of cultural change on personality traits in African peoples. He reports of observations made in this respect on comparison of the Dogon people of Mali with the Agni people of the Ivory Coast. Cases of monosymptomatic tactile hallucinations in Sierra Leoneans are described, and their etiology and treatment are discussed by I. B. AMARA in the following paper. S. K. WEINBERG discusses the social personal meaning of disordered behavior among urbanizing Ghanians in Accra, as well as the processes involved in the psychotherapy of native healers which may contribute to the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients. T. ASUNI deals with sociopsychia tric problems in transitional Nigeria. He holds that devaluation, if not dis appearance, of traditional rituals and beliefs may have removed important social institutions for coping with the anxiety of sociocultural change. The relationship of acculturation to mental illness, in his opinion, has by no means been clarified yet. He notes a greater tolerance for the non-socially-disrupted individual with mental disorder in the traditional than in the transitional or urban setting. Shifting from West Africa to East Africa, the next paper summarizes observations made by W. G. JILEK and L. M. JILEK-AALL in a Tanzanian tribe (see also: Transcultural Psychiatric Research, 1 (1964): 139-142). These authors also present an extensive bibliography on research carried out by other investigators regarding epilepsy in Africa. Finally E. H. M. SCOTT reports on the content of delusions and hallucinations in 100 South African female psychotics.