AnthroPod 53. Anthropology and/of Mental Health, Pt. 1
Nov 14, 2019
In a thought-provoking discussion, Professors Beatriz-Reyes Foster and Rebecca Lester dive into the intersection of anthropology and mental health. They share insights from their blog series on trauma and resilience in ethnographic fieldwork, highlighting the mental health challenges faced by researchers. They emphasize the need for better institutional support, reflective practices, and a cultural shift towards nurturing academic environments. Their narratives explore the emotional toll of fieldwork and advocate for ongoing conversations around mental health in anthropology.
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Discipline Studies Its Own Harm
- Anthropology often studies structures that also harm anthropologists themselves, creating a disconnect between analysis and lived impact.
- The series asks why the discipline hasn't acknowledged scholars' own experiences of trauma and mental illness.
Psychiatric Hospital Research Took A Toll
- Beatrice Foster described deep emotional toll from doing research in a psychiatric hospital and recognizing secondary trauma.
- She stopped and began including others' stories after casual conversations revealed many had abandoned fieldwork for emotional reasons.
Avoidance Masked Fieldwork Trauma
- Greg Beckett recounts initially avoiding acknowledging his own trauma from Haiti and feeling dread about fieldwork.
- Reframing those experiences as trauma enriched his ethnographic understanding and fieldnotes.