ESRC Seminar Series, 5 th semin ar
Global Citizenship as a Graduate Attribute:
Cultures of Teaching and Global Well Being
16 December 2011
University College London
United Kingdom
Dr Sushrut Jadhav
Senior Lecturer in Cross-cultural Psychiatry
Unit of Mental Health Sciences
University College London

Global citizenship as a graduate attribute

This seminar examines Cultures of Teaching,
Intercultural Interactions, & Global Citizenship.
Part I unpacks the cultural construction of teacherstudent relationship amongst mental health professionals in South Asia
Part II examines its impact on well being in India
Part III demonstrates its impact on well being in the UK
The seminar concludes by arguing that wellbeing is generated and contested within the inter-subjective space of teacher-student relationship, and requires a fundamental rethink on how this impacts both on health and suffering across cultures, and on the idea of ‘Global
Citizenship’.

A hierarchical patriarchal teacher – student ( Guru-Shisya) relationship continues to underpin the interaction between senior Indian mental health professionals and their junior trainees. Although commonly cited in the context of Music,
Art, & psychotherapy, this subject also dominates the academic personal ties between senior Indian mental health professionals and their more junior trainees. In most instances, the alliance between autocratic Fathers and submissive Sons is fraught with tensions that are rarely verbalised freely. Thus, Sons of Fathers of Indian mental health/psychiatry cannot mount a challenge, or for that matter, confront received theory or practice unless the
Teacher ( Guru) has given his blessings to the student
(Shisya) .

Centre & Margins: student and tribals
Semiotics of Govt. of India Education Ministry
Web Site, ca 21 st Century

Gurus as social cultural institution, Part 1 of 2 from Ranade, A (2002): The Guru-Shishya Parampara,
Journal of ethnomusicology, 6, 38-50
Sanskrit Hindi
Guru
Shishya
Guru-shishya parampara
Guru dakshina
Guru krama
Guru-shishya shikshanpaddhati
Gurukul
Guruseva
Gurudakshina
Guru sanman/smaran/pranam
Guru, ustad
Shishya, shagird
Guru-shishya parampara
Guru dakshina
Gurukram do do
Guruseva, khidmat
Gurudakshina, nazar do

Guru as social cultural institution: Part 2 of 2
Sanksrit Hindi
Deeksha-shiksha-pariksha
Sampradaya
Guruprakar/barga
Shishyaprakar/varga
Gurupournima
Chhatra
Gurumantra
Adhyayansthala
Gurupatni
Gurubhakti
Guruvaar
Gurubhakti
Guruvagya
Do
Do
Do
Do
Do
Do
Do
Deeksha-shiksha-pariksha
Gharana
Guruvarg
Do
Gurupoornima
Do

Fathers & Sons across cultures (Gurus & Shisyas)
Goldman’s* three major variants of Oedipal conflict in the
Classic Indian Epics
(Mahabharatas, Ramanayas, & Puranas)
1. A son, always a surrogate son, successfully challenges a father figure and through this attack achieves maturity and temporal power (European folk narratives: Bettelheim 1976)
* Goldman, RP (1978): Fathers, Sons and Gurus: Oedipal conflict in the Sanskrit epics. Journal of Indian philosophy,
6, 325-92

2. The sons attacks a surrogate father and/or surrogate mother. He may succeed in actually killing the father but whether he does or not, here he is punished with symbolic castration. This pattern, says Goldman, is more popular in India than in Europe

3. A heroic son anticipates and avoids overt oedipal conflicts and paternal aggression by freely submitting to the father’s will, in effect castrating himself. Heroes of this type are never punished but on the contrary rewarded in various ways; however, these rewards are generally compensatory, for the major Indian heroes of this type are commonly excluded from the pleasures and privileges of sexuality and temporal power

Consider therefore…
Through a process of collusion between internalised colonial authority and more grounded ancient cultural prescriptions that legitimise and bestow power on the Father figure, the submissive trainee and patient suffer from consequences of such cultural dynamic. If, as an extreme scenario, declaring a Teacher’s (G uru’s) sacred teaching as profane is fraught with grave personal social consequences, what creative alternatives are available to the budding junior trainee?

Hence…
The Gurus of mental health across cultures have colluded in the development and application of such research methods, instruments and scales appear. This is not just a matter of cultural insensitivity or about category errors.
These are indeed ‘instruments of violence’ that are manufactured in high income countries and like ‘pills’ are ‘swallowed’ (or internalised) by low income countries.

The implication that…
Mental health professionals, particularly those from low-income nations, have often expressed surprise at the manner in which scholarly discourses about social sciences are confined to the academic institutions of high-income countries, and have little impact on changes in everyday clinical practice in their own settings.

‘Your textbooks on mental health don’t mention anything about our problems’
-A ctivist at a conference on Caste & Mental Health, Pune,
India, 2007)

Historically dominant elites
Caste groups
Colonial influences
~British Universities
Indian medical establishment
Selected through marks (proxy for caste) not of course cultural sensitivity
Gurus/ teachers
Shisyas/students
Doctors & Patients, Teachers (gurus) and
Students (shisyas)

* Jadhav, S & Barua, M (2012): The Elephant Vanishes: implications of humanelephant conflict on peoples’ wellbeing . Manuscript in process of submission for publication.

* Jadhav, S & Barua, M (2012): The Elephant Vanishes: implications of humanelephant conflict on peoples’ wellbeing. Manuscript in process of submission for publication.

One can start from Ganesha and work from there in an unbroken line to almost any aspect of
Indian culture
Wendy O’Flaherty
In ‘The Living Elephants’
Raman Sukumar, OUP, 2003
† Ganesha was both a creator and remover of obstacles during the first millenium.

Year Human Deaths Elephant Deaths* Source
1999-2000 35 4 BNT
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04 NA
2004-05 NA
2005-06 NA
56
39
76
6 BNT
30 BNT
19 BNT
23 BNT
19 BNT
20 BNT
2006-07 NA
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
44
52
70
32 BNT
25 BNT
10 Sentinel
9 Sentinel
*Conflict-related elephant deaths only
Total: 372 humans, 197 elephants killed in last 10 years

Consequences of Human Elephant Conflict (HEC)
Social & Ecological *
SOCIAL
• Direct
– Loss of life/injury (Dixon et al 2009): diminished well being of survivors
– Damage to crops/livestock (Dixon et al 2009); affects livelihood, food security, & sustainability of agriculture
– Loss of property
• Indirect
– Oppurtunity costs for individuals/community (Hoare 2000, Naughton et al
1999, Dixon et al 2009): restricts movements, property guarding consequences incl physical and psychological ill health, employment
– Transaction costs for -------------(Saberwal et al 1994): temporal delays with compensation
– Hiddden-psychological costs
– Institutional costs (weakens policy): hampers re-introduction of policy
* Jadhav, S & Barua, M (2012): The Elephant Vanishes: implications of human-elephant conflict on peoples’ wellbeing. Manuscript in process of submission for publication.

From Barua. M (2005) The Elephant in Assamese history and mythology.
Kaziranga Centenary Volume P.33-35.

The Elephant and Corporate Agriculture

The
People… and
Subsistence
Agriculture
Psychiatric consequences *:
Widow: clinical depression, panic disorder, phobia
Child: severe school refusal
Uncle: gastric ulcer surgery
Son: Severe depression
* Jadhav, S & Barua, M (2012): The Elephant Vanishes: implications of humanelephant conflict on peoples’ wellbeing. Manuscript in process of submission for publication.

The Gaze of The Clinic

The
Gaze of
The
Clinic

* Jadhav, S & Barua, M (2012): The Elephant
Vanishes: The implications of humanelephant conflict on peoples’ wellbeing.
Manuscript in process of submission for publication.

MENTAL HEALTH DIMENSIONS OF
HUMAN ELEPHANT CONFLICT *
Human, Poor mental health Alcohol Abuse Elephant
Elephant Conflict with humans Criminalised
Human Fatality Psychiatric Morbidity Elephant Fatality
* Jadhav, S & Barua, M (2012): The Elephant Vanishes: implications of humanelephant conflict on peoples’ wellbeing. Manuscript in process of submission for publication.

LONDON ca 2010 *
Stock phrases about a black Afro-carribean subject extracted from his case notes by mental health professionals on a UK psychiatric ward
"diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia", "not engaged with CMHT", "noncompliant with his medication", "not picked up prescription from gp",
"hostile", "hostile and aggressive", "made threats to kill", "denied all mental health problems", "hostile and angry, with challenging manner and behaviour"
"non-compliant", "lacking insight, irritable and hostile in manner and was expressing paranoid ideas about his psychiatrist", "refused to remain informal"
"no management problems on ward, appropriate in behaviour and interacting well with staff and other patients..remained stable..however he was adamant that he didn't suffer from any mental illness and had a brain problem.. Would not take medication on discharge“
“when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a measure”
Maryln Strathern (1997)
*Jadhav, S (2012): Clinical efficacy of Cultural Formulations

1999-2000
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04 NA
2004-05 NA
2005-06 NA
2006-07 NA
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
Year Human Deaths Elephant Deaths* Source
35
56
39
76
44
52
70
4 BNT
6 BNT
30 BNT
19 BNT
23 BNT
19 BNT
20 BNT
32 BNT
25 BNT
10 Sentinel
9 Sentinel
*Conflict-related elephant deaths only
Total: 372 humans, 197 elephants killed in last 10 years
High prevalence of substance misuse in
North East India
The metaphorical ‘elephant’ is one of the missing links. The state apparatus colludes to deny a vital dimension of the logic of suffering that constitutes the local landscapes. This is at both places:
‘remote’ parts of India, and ‘central’
London.

CULTURAL IDENTITY & WELL BEING *
Underconnected
Underconnected and Stagnant e.g. Aristocracy,
Caste groups
Underconnected
& Dislocated e.g. Refugees,
Homeless,
Mentally Unwell
Stagnant
(geographic al)
Dislocated
(geographic al)
Stagnant and
Overconnected e.g.
Fundamentalists
Dislocated &
Overconnected e.g. Wealthy
Diaspora
Overconnected psychological, cultural, temporal; shaped by choice & response from host society

Part III:
The Elephant, returns
(The University)
Global Well Being and its relationship with: the local, the excluded, & the marginal.
Cultures of Teaching (Inter-cultural interaction) & Global
Well Being

• The ‘Pan-Opticon’ has retreated and transformed into the
‘Pan-Lexicon’ of Health Professional’s vocabulary, world wide*
• Global well being is a stunted concept if it does not address plurality of teaching cultures
• The Local impacts upon the Global (Pedagogy & Ecology)
• What about the Student who does not reach the UK?
• What about the Homeless who does not have an address?
• What about the Minority Groups across cultures?
• What about the Universities at the Margins?
• If the Centres don’t connect with the Margins, we are at risk of reproducing and amplifying inequalities through our cultures of teaching, including teacher-student encounters
• This will impact on our own and their ‘Well Being’