Week 3 Presentation Notes -- Shannon, Leslie, Erin

Investigations of The Irrational, Orientalist Academy: Critical Studies of Collaborations Between Traditional Cultural Beliefs and Western Psychology

In our presentation, we will examine the long standing unequal power dynamic in knowledge production between Western psychology and Eastern, traditional beliefs. To acknowledge this power dynamic, we will also investigate the issues and processes for collaborations between the two knowledge systems and healing practices. For instance, power dynamics in Eastern medicine and Western medicine, in normal and irrational behaviors as subjective but can be reinforced as violence through institutional power and buy-ins from member of society that reinforced what is normal behavior. Within public universities in California, what groups, designated job titles, and organizations  have power to claim which healing practices are deviant and which ones are normal? Who buys into these ideas of normal and deviancy, and how can we look beyond these binaries through an interdisciplinary approach between sciences and the social sciences?

In the US, the mental health industrial complex can profit from treating the symptoms of human suffering rather than identify the source of ailments in one’s environment. Additionally, clashes of the self, such as the feeling of one’s live spiraling out of control and feeling “crazy” due to being unjustly denied of tenure under discriminatory practices and toxic workplaces, can stem from hidden, institutional violences and ongoing issues through the institutional devaluation of scholars of color’s intellectual contributions (Esaki, 4, 2017.) Therefore, if we are looking at how a marginalized group is experiencing stress-induced illnesses, we should look at how they arrived at the state they’re in through discriminatory workplace practices and solve the core of these social issues as a long-term remedy. We should also expand the spectrum of normal behaviors, such as stress reactions to institutional suppression against precarious positioned groups (like Asian American women faculty members) in the university (Esaki, 5, 2017; Bulhan- Hayden, 46, 2017). 

Orientalism and the history of colonized population marked and categorized as the dehumanized “other” have also set normal behaviors and deviant behaviors (Esaki). University systems, who also reinforce Orientalist knowledge production, can perpetuate and prompted internationalized feelings of conflicts with oneself and psychosis of oppressed, marginalized tenure-track faculty members. For example, the colonized or the “other” is seen as an irrational figure that must be subdued, controlled, fixed, silenced and corrected by the colonizer and their institutional power (Bulhan-Hayden, 46, 2017.) Therefore, mimicking the white male scholar in mentorship by being self-centered and self-absorbed will not benefit the Asian American women scholar, because she is already seen as expendable by the university (Esaki, 4, 2017.)

Additionally, since one’s understanding and sense of normal and deviant are subjective, professional mental health specialists and institutions must be self-aware of how they might profit from correcting behaviors and emotional states seen as “normal” in other cultures. Ethnic studies is important to sustain this self-awareness, because the field produces research on how the institutional tendency to subdue pathologized populations could be a legacy of colonial histories. For instance, one of the problems of influence people to be happy all the time as the social norm is that whole industries and a culture of suppressing community issues and unresolved personal tensions can erupt at the death, emotional and psychological manipulation, dehumanization, and expense of each, individualized “other.” This trend can occur without the university’s own self-awareness and acknowledgement that it is inflicting violence on marginalized faculty members (Esaki, 3, 2017.) 

These power dynamics in rendering marginalized populations as “others” can happen in mental health institutions as well; for example, admitting potential shamans in their first phase of becoming shamans in mental hospitals acts as another form of Orientalism that benefits the mental health industrial complex. As context, the Dagara (African Ethnic Group) views mental illness as a sign of birth of a healer. Unlike the Western World, this is good news as the other world is trying to communicate through that selected individual. These “mental illness” symptoms arise because two incompatible energies have emerged, and the spirits or entities that go along with the individual are only seen by spiritual leaders like shamans or psychics. The severe suffering of mental illness patients is a result of intentional blockage of the spirits and the other world. The energy of the healer to-be is “high voltage” energy - and is translated into the spirits screaming inside of the individual because they are not being allowed to become the healer that they are supposed to be. However, spirits are not always bringing positive energy - they can also bring negative, undesirable energies that shamans will try to remove. This connects with the experiences of the shaman class speaker. He shared his memories of having severe physical illnesses including fevers and extreme moodiness, symptoms that were instantly alleviated as soon as he followed his calling of a healer. Although unexplainable, shamanistic practices are believed to be beneficial and liberating. However, living in the Western world with these practices is difficult as it may demand an individual to find the balance of cultures and beliefs.

A big part of shamanistic practices is rituals. Performing rituals advances natural healing, and helps the spirits from the other world align energies with beings in our world. Because Westerners have a lack of ritual, they are susceptible to more illness, distress, and negative energies. Dr. Some explains the importance of the role of nature in rituals - for example, visiting a mountain or river and becoming one with these elements (implying that we all have on conscious, soul, and shared energy). It is one aspect of spirituality that Westerners have denied because of the fast-paced culture and lifestyles. Spiritual healers like Dr. Some are trying to design rituals that would fit the needs and lifestyles and ideals of Westerners: “To say that ritual is needed in the industrialized world is an understatement. We have seen in my own people that it is probably impossible to live a sane life without it” (6). This calls for collaboration between Western and Eastern practices. It is a compromise that is needed - one that acknowledges the ideals and cultures of both worlds and that is willing to meet in the middle in order to promote healing and find solutions.

Lastly, by locking patients up in hospitals, the spirits that are  trying to communicate to the individual grow more aggressive. According to the shaman in this article, Westerners are ignoring the birth of a healer, and are treating mental health patients like burdens and dangers to society. Interestingly, the Dagara communities make tremendous efforts to help a person struggling with “mental health” issues reconcile the energies of both worlds. They provide the support and healing the individual needs as this person serves as a bridge for information in between the worlds. Westerners are constantly labeling mental illness as something that is wrong, dangerous, and dysfunctional about the individual. This specific reading sheds light on a need for  different perspective. Maybe if we viewed mental illness as a unique power, or even gift, we can further positive healing for society. Perhaps we can also find different approaches to treating people with unaligned energies rather than isolating and solely medicating them, abolishing the mentality of “Western dominance” once and for all. 
To challenge Western dominance in knowledge production and authority over healing, we pose critical questions for collaborations between traditional, cultural beliefs and Western psychology: in the US corporate society and culture, what is the framework or process for combining both systems of healing without shaming, devaluing, overpowering, and silencing eastern ideas and reinforcing unequal power dynamics? For instance, the article “Combining Indian and Western Spiritual Psychology: Applications to Health and Social Renewal” by Doug Omen and Nirbhay N. Sinh is about the Indian religion and explains how Indian psychologies can be merged with those of the Western, to provide a worldwide collaboration in spiritual knowledge. Expanding the pool of intellectual knowledge accessible between the western and Indian culture is critical in ensuring association of the various cultures. The practical knowledge used in the collection of data and analysis is utilized by the psychologist to share knowledge between the Indian and the western culture. Hinduism and its effects on the individual's' well-being are also discussed, and how this can be related to Islam and Christianity so that the well-being of people in the various religious beliefs is catered for by the religions and cultures.

    Religious practices’ effects on the health of Indian population and the impact of meditations in their psychological mindset are also analyzed in the article. Mindfulness is essential in western cultures, and its effect in various religions, including Hinduism and Islam, are discussed, and their effects on lives of the Indian communities evaluated. Religious and spiritual diversity in the world is also considered since globalization has resulted into diverse cultures living together and interacting regularly. Mental health is important for every human being, but because of industrial complexity in the world arising from globalization, self-clash has resulted in the loss of people’s lives. The interaction of the western and the Indian culture has led to the compromise of various religious values by individuals so that they can fit the contemporary world. Religious/spiritual resources can be utilized to handle the current complexity in the world by establishing ways of promoting the wellbeing of the people.