Psychiatry and Decolonisation in Uganda (Mental Health in Historical Perspective)

This open access book investigates psychiatry in Uganda during the years of decolonisation. It examines the challenges facing a new generation of psychiatrists as they took over responsibility for psychiatry at the end of empire, and explores the ways psychiatric practices were tied to shifting political and development priorities, periods of instability, and a broader context of transnational and international exchange. At its heart is a question that has concerned psychiatrists globally since the mid-twentieth century: how to bridge the social and cultural gap between psychiatry and its patients? Bringing together archival research with oral histories, Yolana Pringle traces how this question came to dominate both national and international discussions on mental health care reform, including at the World Health Organization, and helped spur a culture of experimentation and creativity globally. As Pringle shows, however, the history of psychiatry during the years of decolonisation remained one of marginality, and ultimately, in the context of war and violence, the decolonisation of psychiatry was incomplete. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 9 Abbreviations 10 Chapter 1 Introduction 12 Psychiatry and Decolonisation in Africa 16 Psychiatry as a Transnational and Global Phenomenon 21 Psychiatry in Uganda 28 Chapter 2 A Place on Mulago Hill 38 From Hoima to Mulago 42 Cases for Admission 46 Psychiatric Practices 53 Conclusion 58 Chapter 3 The ‘Africanisation’ of Psychiatry 69 Uganda’s First Psychiatrists 72 Dissent in 1940s Buganda 77 Bosa and Hierarchies of Power 82 The Department of Psychiatry 85 Conclusion 92 Chapter 4 ‘Mass Hysteria’ in the Wake of Decolonisation 103 Anxieties in the Wake of Decolonisation 108 The ‘Problem’ of Mass Hysteria 111 Multiple Responses to ‘Mass Madness’ 116 Conclusion 118 Chapter 5 The Psychiatry of Poverty 127 Problems of Social and Economic Change 131 Psychiatry and the Development of Health Services 136 Mental Health Education 142 Patients 147 Conclusion 151 Chapter 6 Mobility, Power and International Mental Health 162 The Making of an ‘African’ Psychiatric Tradition 165 The WHO and Mental Health in Primary Care 170 In the Diaspora 174 Conclusion 178 Chapter 7 The ‘Trauma’ of War and Violence 185 Decline and Stagnation 189 In Search of ‘War Trauma’ 194 Coping with War 202 Conclusion 206 Chapter 8 Conclusion 216 Bibliography 227 Index 253 Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 1-26 A Place on Mulago Hill (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 27-57 The ‘Africanisation’ of Psychiatry (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 59-92 ‘Mass Hysteria’ in the Wake of Decolonisation (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 93-116 The Psychiatry of Poverty (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 117-151 Mobility, Power and International Mental Health (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 153-175 The ‘Trauma’ of War and Violence (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 177-207 Conclusion (Yolana Pringle)....Pages 209-219 Back Matter ....Pages 221-259