Healing Traditions: The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada

by Laurence J. Kirmayer (Editor)

Overview

Aboriginal peoples in Canada have diverse cultures but share common social and political challenges that have contributed to their experiences of health and illness. This collection addresses the origins of mental health and social problems and the emergence of culturally responsive approaches to services and health promotion. Healing Traditions is not a handbook of practice but a resource for thinking critically about current issues in the mental health of indigenous peoples. Cross-cutting themes include: the impact of colonialism, sedentarization, and forced assimilation; the importance of land for indigenous identity and an ecocentric self; and processes of healing and spirituality as sources of resilience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780774815246
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Laurence J. Kirmayer is James McGill Professor and Director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University; Director of the Culture and Mental Health Research Unit of the Institute for Community and Family Psychiatry, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal; and Co-Director of the National Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research. Gail Guthrie Valaskakis was Director of Research, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Ottawa, and Co-Director of the National Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research.

Table of Contents

Illustrations

Foreword

Preface

Part 1: The Mental Health of Indigenous Peoples

1 The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: Transformations of Identity and Community / Laurence J. Kirmayer, Caroline L. Tait, and Cori Simpson

2 Mental Health and the Indigenous Peoples of Australia and New Zealand / Mason Durie, Helen Milroy, and Ernest Hunter

3 Culture and Aboriginality in the Study of Mental Health / James B. Waldram

4 Social Competence and Mental Health among Aboriginal Youth: An Integrative Developmental Perspective / Grace Iarocci, Rhoda Root, and Jacob A. Burack

Part 2: Social Suffering: Origins and Representations

5 A Colonial Double-Bind: Social and Historical Contexts of Innu Mental Health / Colin Samson

6 Placing Violence against First Nations Children: The Use of Space and Place to Construct the (In)credible Violated Subject / Jo-Anne Fiske

7 Narratives of Hope and Despair in Downtown Eastside Vancouver / Dara Culhane

8 Suicide as a Way of Belonging: Causes and Consequences of Cluster Suicides in Aboriginal Communities / Ronald Niezen

9 Disruptions in Nature, Disruptions in Society: Aboriginal Peoples of Canada and the “Making” of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome / Caroline L. Tait

Part 3: Resilience: Transformations of Identity and Community

10 Cultural Continuity as a Moderator of Suicide Risk among Canada’s First Nations / Michael J. Chandler and Christopher E. Lalonde

11 The Origins of Northern Aboriginal Social Pathologies and the Quebec Cree Healing Movement / Adrian Tanner

12 Toward a Recuperation of Souls and Bodies: Community Healing and the Complex Interplay of Faith and History / Naomi Adelson

13 Locating the Ecocentric Self: Inuit Concepts of Ment

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A comprehensive guide to the role of Aboriginal history, culture, and identity in mental health and healing. Well-written and readable, this book should become the important source for mental health professionals working with indigenous peoples."—Malcolm King, Principal Investigator, Alberta ACADRE Network, University of Alberta, and Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health, Edmonton.

Malcolm King

A comprehensive guide to the role of Aboriginal history, culture, and identity in mental health and healing. Well-written and readable, this book should become the important source for mental health professionals working with indigenous peoples.

Editorial Reviews

University of Washington Press

From the Publisher