5. Africa

Abstract

M. and E. ORTIGUES explored the meaning of the Oedipus complex among Islamic tribal Senegalese. They suggest that for the Senegalese under study, rivalry of the son with his father is systematically displaced on to brothers, cousins and peers; that agressiveness is principally expressed in the form of persecutory ideas; and that separation anxiety appears to be the dominant equivalent of castration anxiety. R. GIEL and his associates reporting from Ethiopia stress the difficulties of establishing rapport with patients and of evaluating the clinical significance of the dramatically described and ethnically determined symptomatology. In a paper dealing with guilt emanating from transgression of culturally approved norms of sexual behavior, R. M. WINTROB suggests that in Liberia severe depressive symptomatology is warded off by displacement and projection. These ego-defence mechanisms give rise to a highly systematized complex of culturally shared beliefs in possession by malevolent supernatural powers. A. BOROFFKA describes a rapid increase in the habit of Cannabis smoking in the Lagos region of Nigeria. This increase is most notable among skilled workers, semi-Westernized and semi-alienated from traditional group membership. R. J. M. COLLIS in his study of mentally ill Yoruba patients explored the importance of physical illness, especially of lowgrade parasitic infection, for the development of psychopathology and for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. He utilized placebos, measures to counteract organic pathology, and psychopharmaceuticals as comparative treatment procedures and obtained highest levels of improvement with psychopharmaceuticals. S. K. WEINBERG noted in Ghana a recent decline in social status of native healers and an increasing tendency of the urban popu lation to consult faith healers for the treatment of mental disorders. He attri butes the decline in the social status of the native healers to detribalization, internal disorganization of the 'profession', official government discouragement and the spread of competing therapies. Based on clinical material and obser vations in the field, T. A. BAASHER describes folk treatment procedures in the Sudan; he analyzes in particular the relative therapeutic efficacy of the Zar cult, of witchcraft and of Islamic faith healing.