Anthropology Department
Brandeis University
Spring 2015
Syllabus Draft; subject to change
ANTHROPOLOGY 155b
Psychological Anthropology
Janet McIntosh
Class:
Instructor:
Office:
Contact info:
Tuesday, Friday 11:00-12:20
Dr. Janet McIntosh
Brown 207
Office: 781-736-2215
Cell (emergencies): 617-850-5016
Email: janetmc@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Friday 2:00-3:00, Brown 207.
TA:
Holly Harsdorf (holly@brandeis.edu)
TA Office and Office Hours: TBA
Course Description:
This course addresses the relationships between mind and culture by exploring and critiquing a
broad array of approaches in psychological anthropology. We begin by examining
psychoanalytic anthropology, learning how Freudian tenets about unconscious processes have
been applied to cultural symbols and practices. We explore how psychoanalytic approaches
might apply to aspects of culture in New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and the USA, and we critique their
potential shortcomings. We also examine theories of ritual, including its transformative
properties, and its possible psychodynamic implications. Next, we examine the “culture and
personality school,” a popular mid-century movement that worked from the assumption that
significant parts of the personality will be similar for all members of a culture or even a nation.
Then we explore cross-cultural studies of “selfhood” and “personhood,” emotion, and belief
using ethnographic research from Bali, India, Brazil, Micronesia, Japan, Africa, and the USA to
investigate how culture might shape foundational ideas of what a person is and what kinds of
beliefs and emotions they ought to have. We have a brief unit exploring the ways in which
cognitive science might inform our understanding of cultural phenomena. We turn next to the
issue of mental health, asking how cultures construct and address phenomena such as depression,
multiple personality disorder, and so-called “culture-bound syndromes” of the mind and body.
Throughout the semester, we will attend to broader theoretical matters such as the tension
between human universals and cultural particulars, and historical shifts in the relationship
between anthropology and psychological approaches.
Course Requirements:
1) Class attendance and participation
2) 2 short response papers
3) 7-8 page midterm paper.
4) 10-11 page final paper.
Note: Graduate students will write longer papers and have the option of writing one long “megapaper,” due at the end of the semester, instead of two shorter ones. Grad students who write two
papers should aim for 11-13 pp for the midterm and 15-17 pp for the final; those writing the
mega-paper instead should aim for 25-30 pp. If you plan to write the mega-paper, be sure to
check in with me around the time the midterm paper would be coming due, so we can discuss
your plans.
Grading:
1) Attendance/participation in class: 20%
2) 2 short response papers: 20% (15% for highest grade, 5% for lowest grade)
3) Midterm paper: 25%
4) Final paper: 30%
(Mega-paper for grad students who opt for it: 55%)
Readings:
There is one textbook for this class, available at the Brandeis bookstore:
Bock, Philip K. Rethinking Psychological Anthropology: Continuity and Change in the Study of
Human Action. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. 1999.
All other readings will be available on LATTE.
Late work: Work submitted after the due date and time will be lowered by one third of a grade
for each day (or fraction of a day) late, except in documented cases of illness or emergency.
Work submitted later than the start of class (at 3:30 p.m.) will be considered one day late. You
are to submit all written work by LATTE as well as in person, and your LATTE submission will
provide the critical evidence that you have submitted on time.
Attendance and participation: 20% of your grade comes from your attendance and (crucially)
thoughtful contribution to class discussions. As part of your academic honesty and good
citizenship, please do not sign in for others in lecture.
Excused absence policy: Attendance is important to your grade and missing classes can make a
dent. Each student, however, is allowed one excused absence. To apply for an excused absence,
please email Holly Harsdorf (holly@brandeis.edu) at least 4 hours before class begins. A
doctor’s note is ideal in cases of illness but we understand there are some circumstances where it
may not be possible.
If you have to be absent beyond your 1 excused absence, the best way to mitigate this is to write
a 3 page response paper that summarizes and thoughtfully responds to the readings for the day in
question. This make-up exercise must be handed in to the professor within a week of the missed
class, barring exceptional circumstances.
Grading: Professor McIntosh will grade all graduate student work and all final papers. Holly
Harsdorf will grade the undergraduate short papers and midterms. Both will jointly decide upon
participation grades.
Paper re-write policy: You have the option of re-writing your midterm paper if you receive a
grade of B- or below. To qualify for the rewrite option, you must contact your grader via email
within one week of receiving your paper grade, and submit to them a one-page discussion
of how you plan to improve your paper in response to their comments. You must then
establish a new deadline for submission of the rewrite, and that deadline must fall within one
week of your sending that email. Your rewrite, then, must be submitted within two weeks of
receiving your original paper grade. The original paper grade and the grade for the rewrite will
be averaged to determine the ultimate grade that the paper receives. Please be aware that there is
always the possibility that, in the unfortunate event that your rewrite goes off course, a rewrite
could actually lower your ultimate paper grade—but this is unusual and hopefully will not be the
case!
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: You may only submit your own original work in this
course. Please be careful to cite precisely and properly the sources of all authors and persons you
have drawn upon in your written work. Plagiarism (from published or internet sources, or from
another student) is a serious violation of academic integrity that your instructors are obligated to
report. Please take special care to indicate the precise source of all materials found on the web,
indicating the correct URL address of any material you have quoted or in any way drawn upon.
Remember, you must indicate through quotations and citation when quoting from any
outside source (internet or print).
Accommodations: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis
University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please
furnish me (Professor McIntosh) with the appropriate documentation from Academic Services as
soon as possible.
Laptops etc.: Except in cases of documented need/special petition, I prefer that you not take
notes on a laptop in class. It has proven too hard for students to resist the temptation to check
facebook, email etc. during class time; this is a distraction to your neighbors and sometimes even
to the professor. Please also refrain from using hand-held devices.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
Tues Jan 13th —Introduction to Psychological Anthropology
Fri Jan 16th —Introduction to Psychoanalytic Anthropology
Bock, Philip K. “Prelude” and “Psychoanalytic Anthropology” in Rethinking Psychological
Anthropology, Second Edition. Ed. Philip K. Bock. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. 1999.
Wulff, David M. Excerpts: “An outline of psychoanalytic theory” in Psychology of Religion:
Classic and Contemporary, Second Edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 1997. Pp.
269-276
Obeyesekere, G. Excerpts from Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious
Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1981. Pp.13-27, 33-37 **NOTE THESE
ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE EXCERPTS ON LATTE!**
Tues Jan 20th —Psychoanalytic Anthropology and Symbolic Interpretation
Wulff, David M. Excerpts: “D.W. Winnicott: Religion as transitional phenomenon” in
Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary, Second Edition. New York: John Wiley and
Sons, Inc. 1997. Pp. 339-341
Herdt, G. H. “Transitional Objects in Sambia Initiation Rites,” Ethos vol. 15: 40-57. 1987.
JSTOR.
IN CLASS VIDEO: “The Sambia”
Fri Jan 23rd — The Ritual Process: Psychological elements
Turner, Victor. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage.” In The
Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. Symposium on New Approaches to the Study
of Religion. University of Washington Press. 1964. Pp. 4-20.
IN CLASS VIDEO: excerpt from “Full Metal Jacket”
Tues Jan 27th —The “Culture and Personality School” I
Bock, Philip K. Chapter 3 “Configurations of Culture and Personality,” Chapter 5, “National
Character Studies,” Interlude, “The Crisis in Culture and Personality,” in Rethinking
Psychological Anthropology, Second Edition. Ed. Philip K. Bock. Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland Press. 1999.
Whiting, John W. M. “Socialization Process and Personality.” In Psychological Anthropology:
Approaches to Culture and Personality. Ed. Francis L. K. Hsu. Homewood, IL: The Dorsey
Press, Inc. 1961. Pp. 355-380.
Fri Jan 30th —The “Culture and Personality School” II
Benedict, Ruth. “Assignment: Japan” and “The Child Learns,” from The Chrysanthemum and
the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1989 [1946]
Pp. 1-19, 253-296.
Tues Feb 3rd —Cultural Diversity in Models of the Self
Geertz, Clifford. “Person Time and Conduct in Bali.” In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic
Books. 1973. Pp. 360-411
Markus, Hazel Rose, and Shinobu Kitayama. "Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition,
Emotion, and Motivation." Psychological Review 98, no. 2 (1991): 224-53.
**SHORT PAPER #1 DUE**
Fri Feb 6th —Cultural Diversity in Models of the Self II
Lamb, Sarah. “The Making and Unmaking of Persons: Notes on Aging and Gender in North
India,” Ethos 25(3): 279-302. 1997.
McIntosh, Janet. 2009. “Toxic Bodies and Intentional Minds: Hegemony and Ideology in
Giriama Conversion Experiences,” from The Edge of Islam: Power, Personhood, and
Ethnoreligious Boundaries on the Kenya Coast. Duke University Press. Pp. 127-175.
Tues Feb 10th — The Consistency (or not) of the Person; the Tenuousness of “Beliefs”
Nisbett, Richard and Lee Ross, Chapter 2, “The Power of the Situation,” in The Person and the
Situation: Essential Contributions of Social Psychology. 1991. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press.
McIntosh, Janet. “Going Bush: Black Magic, White Ambivalence, and Boundaries of Belief in
Post-Colonial Kenya.” Journal of Religion in Africa 36(3), 2006: 254-295.
Fri Feb 13th —SHOW AND TELL
Tues Feb 17th, Fri Feb 20th —NO CLASSES
Tues Feb 24th —Cultural Differences in Emotional Categories and Emotional Experiences
Bock, Philip K. “Emotions and Selfhood” in Rethinking Psychological Anthropology, Second
Edition. Ed. Philip K. Bock. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. 1999.
Lutz, Catherine. “The Cultural Construction of Emotions,” and “Need, Nurturance, and the
Precariousness of Life on a Coral Atoll: The Emotion of Fago (Compassion/Love/Sadness)” in
Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll and Their Challenge to
Western Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1988.
Friday Feb 27th — The Politics of Feeling
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. “(M)Other Love: Culture, Scarcity, and Maternal Thinking,” and “Our
Lady of Sorrows: A Political Economy of the Emotions,” from Death Without Weeping: The
Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1992. Pp. 340-359,
400-445.
Hoschchild, Arlie Russell. “Exploring the Managed Heart,” “Feeling as Clue” (recommended:
“Managing Feeling”) in The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling.
Berkeley: University of California Press. 1983. Pp. 3-55.
Tues March 3rd
–
Culture and Love
Thomas, Lynn and Jennifer Cole. “Introduction: Thinking Through Love in Africa” and Jennifer
Cole’s “Love, Money, and Economics of Intimacy in Tamatave, Madagascar” in Love in Africa,
eds. Jennifer Cole and Lynn M. Thomas. University of Chicago Press.
Friday March 6th –Guest Lecturer:
Tuesday March 10th – Show and tell
**MIDTERM ESSAYS DUE**
Friday March 13th — Cognitive Anthropology I
Bock, Philip K. Chapter 10, “Cognitive Anthropology” in Rethinking Psychological
Anthropology, Second Edition. Ed. Philip K. Bock. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. 1999.
McIntosh, Janet. “Symbols, Cognition, and Political Orders.” Science and Society 62. 4 (1998):
557-568.
Tues March 17th -- Cognitive Anthropology of Religion
Boyer, Pascal. "Cognitive Constraints on Cultural Representations: Natural Ontologies and
Religious Ideas." In Mapping the Mind: Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture, edited by
Lawrence Hirschfeld and Susan Gelman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Atran, Scott. God’s Creation: Evolutionary Origins of the Supernatural. In In Gods We Trust:
The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. Oxford University Press. 2002. Pp. 51-78.
Friday March 20th –- Culture and Psychological Disorders: Symptoms, Models, and Politics
I
Bock, Philip K. Chapter 11, “Shamans, Alternative States, and Schizophrenia” in Rethinking
Psychological Anthropology, Second Edition. Ed. Philip K. Bock. Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland Press. 1999.
Foucault, Michel. “Introduction” and “The Historical Constitution of Mental Illness,” in Mental
Illness and Psychology. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1987. Pp. 60-85.
Tues March 24th — Culture and Psychological Disorders: the Startle Reflex and Latah
(Professor McIntosh at Virginia Tech to give talks)
Simons, Ronald C. “Preface,” and Chapters 7-9 and 11 in Boo! Culture, Experience, and the
Startle Reflex. Oxford University Press. 1996. Pp. vii-x, 3-17, 143-203, 230-248.
IN CLASS VIDEO: “Latah”
Friday March 27th —Culture and Psychological Disorders: Symptoms, Models, and Politics
II
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. “’Mental’ in ‘Southie’: Individual, Family, and Community Responses
to Psychosis in South Boston” in Meanings of Madness, ed. Richard J. Castillo. Pacific Grove,
CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. 1998. Pp. 248-260.
Luhrmann, Tanya. “What’s wrong with the patient?” in Of two Minds: the Growing Disorder in
American Psychiatry. New York: Knopf. 2000.
Tues March 31st –The Cultural Politics of Psychosis
Metzl, Jonathan. The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease. Beacon
Press. 2010. Excerpts TBA.
**SHORT PAPER #2 DUE**
Friday April 3rd, Tues April 7th, Fri April 10th—Passover Recess; NO CLASSES
Tues April 11th ––Globalization and Mental Illness
Waters, Ian. Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. New York: Free Press.
2010. Excerpts TBA.
Fri April 17th—Multiple Personality Disorder, and Dissociation as Coping/Healing
Mechanism
Acocella, Joan. “The Politics of Hysteria.” The New Yorker, April 6, 1998. Pp. 64-79.
Hacking, Ian. “Is It Real?” and “What Is It Like?” in Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality
and the Sciences of Memory. Princeton University Press. 1995. Pp. 8-38.
IN CLASS VIDEO: “Dateline” special on exorcism
Tues April 21st — (Prof McIntosh at Harvard to conduct Anthropology Book Workshop)
FILM: “Shadows and Illuminations”
Friday April 24th —“Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood” and the DSM
[Final readings TBA]
Padawer, Ruth. 2012. “What’s so bad about a boy who wants to wear a dress?” New York Times
Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/magazine/whats-so-bad-about-a-boy-whowants-to-wear-a-dress.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Sedgwick, Eve Sokovsky. “How to bring your kids up gay”
Tuesday April 28th —Last day of class; TBA.
Final paper deadline TBA