Goffredo Bartocci
Goffredo Bartocci was President of the Transcultural Section of the World Psychiatric
Association as well President of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the Italian
Psychiatric Association.
He as co-founder of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) also founded
and directed the journal World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review.
He was World Health Organization research fellow in Adolescent Psychotherapy at the
Tavistock Institute in London and clinical professor at the University of Turin. He has
conducted field research with Bantu people in South Africa and Australian Central Desert
Aborigines.
Actually Goffredo Bartocci is life member of WACP Board of Directors, President of the
Italian Institute of Transcultural Mental Health and director and founder of the journal
Psichiatria e Psicoterapia Culturale. He is still active as psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in
private practice in Rome. Goffredo Bartocci has five books to his credit and several
papers about the influence of magic and the sacred on psychopathological expression.
Association as well President of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the Italian
Psychiatric Association.
He as co-founder of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (WACP) also founded
and directed the journal World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review.
He was World Health Organization research fellow in Adolescent Psychotherapy at the
Tavistock Institute in London and clinical professor at the University of Turin. He has
conducted field research with Bantu people in South Africa and Australian Central Desert
Aborigines.
Actually Goffredo Bartocci is life member of WACP Board of Directors, President of the
Italian Institute of Transcultural Mental Health and director and founder of the journal
Psichiatria e Psicoterapia Culturale. He is still active as psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in
private practice in Rome. Goffredo Bartocci has five books to his credit and several
papers about the influence of magic and the sacred on psychopathological expression.
less
Interests
Uploads
English Papers by Goffredo Bartocci
consciousness and mental health. The cultural framework of this mechanism is connected to mystical roots and
conceptions of spirituality and religion, and a narrative comparison is made from polytheistic to monotheistic
religions. From a cultural psychiatric perspective, anthropological considerations are made for the shift from
dissociative states, culture bound acute psychogenic reactions and chronic psychotic disorders as schizophrenia.
of these I was hosted at the Balgo Mission in the Walbiri territory in the Australian Central Desert together with Dr(s). Malcom Kidson (University of Melbourne), Andrew Horblow (Christchurch
University) and Warren White (University of Melbourne). At the end of the stay, on the very eve
of my departure, I saw some Aboriginal paintings laid out on the floor in a corner of the mission
that were up for sale through the intermediation of the missionary priest. I was particularly fascinated by two of these paintings, which I subsequently purchased.
The first depicted a theme that is traditional to Aboriginal painting, namely a symbolic map of the
territory. This is generally portrayed with circles (symbolizing ponds of water) interconnected by
lines of different lengths (the paths to be followed), with clusters of U’s scattered here and there,
often signifying a squatting man (more specifically, the trace left by a man sitting on the ground)
and symbolizing the place where they would stop to rest or to socialize. I purchased it out of a
sense of scientific commitment. Then, once I had satisfied the pangs of science, I purchased the one displayed above for pure esthetic pleasure. The figure in the center was a snake and it was
embedded in harmonious shapes and colors. The back of the painting
disclosed the indication that I was seeking as the missionary’s handwriting revealed the subject of
the picture: «The painting represents the place of birth of Henry Polly Tjangala. The large serpent
had to travel a long distance before slipping into the lake where it still lies». the missionary confirmed what had not been difficult to infer:
the snake was the representation of Henry’s personal dreamtime, a sort of semi-religious portrayal
of his soul.
Cross-cultural research on the varieties of trance shows that Altered States of Consciousness can be induced by both collective and personal rituals that allow the subject to reach the altered states of consciousness by making the whole world appear and disappear in fantasy.
The Freudian example of 'the cotton-reel mother', whom the child could make disappear and then reappear again, is a powerful one of the phenomenon od detachment dynamics.
consciousness and mental health. The cultural framework of this mechanism is connected to mystical roots and
conceptions of spirituality and religion, and a narrative comparison is made from polytheistic to monotheistic
religions. From a cultural psychiatric perspective, anthropological considerations are made for the shift from
dissociative states, culture bound acute psychogenic reactions and chronic psychotic disorders as schizophrenia.
of these I was hosted at the Balgo Mission in the Walbiri territory in the Australian Central Desert together with Dr(s). Malcom Kidson (University of Melbourne), Andrew Horblow (Christchurch
University) and Warren White (University of Melbourne). At the end of the stay, on the very eve
of my departure, I saw some Aboriginal paintings laid out on the floor in a corner of the mission
that were up for sale through the intermediation of the missionary priest. I was particularly fascinated by two of these paintings, which I subsequently purchased.
The first depicted a theme that is traditional to Aboriginal painting, namely a symbolic map of the
territory. This is generally portrayed with circles (symbolizing ponds of water) interconnected by
lines of different lengths (the paths to be followed), with clusters of U’s scattered here and there,
often signifying a squatting man (more specifically, the trace left by a man sitting on the ground)
and symbolizing the place where they would stop to rest or to socialize. I purchased it out of a
sense of scientific commitment. Then, once I had satisfied the pangs of science, I purchased the one displayed above for pure esthetic pleasure. The figure in the center was a snake and it was
embedded in harmonious shapes and colors. The back of the painting
disclosed the indication that I was seeking as the missionary’s handwriting revealed the subject of
the picture: «The painting represents the place of birth of Henry Polly Tjangala. The large serpent
had to travel a long distance before slipping into the lake where it still lies». the missionary confirmed what had not been difficult to infer:
the snake was the representation of Henry’s personal dreamtime, a sort of semi-religious portrayal
of his soul.
Cross-cultural research on the varieties of trance shows that Altered States of Consciousness can be induced by both collective and personal rituals that allow the subject to reach the altered states of consciousness by making the whole world appear and disappear in fantasy.
The Freudian example of 'the cotton-reel mother', whom the child could make disappear and then reappear again, is a powerful one of the phenomenon od detachment dynamics.
La domanda, lo ricorderete, fu precisa e incisiva: “Potrebbe chiarirci la differenza fra trascendenza e fantasia? “
massima parte all’uso della lente di ingrandimento utilizzata dalla psichiatria culturale
per individuare e connotare i deliri individuali anche per valutare dove collocare
alcune inverificabili quanto pervasive credenze culturali.
Tra le proposte più coraggiose in tema di psicopatologia generale dell’esperienza
religiosa nella civiltà moderna e non solo nei popoli “primitivi”, emergono i lavori di
Raymond Prince il quale, durante la sua presidenza del Dipartimento di Psichiatria
Culturale alla McGill University in Montreal, propose con chiarezza una innovazione
nella ricerca trasculturale. Invitò la civiltà occidentale a riflettere sulla possibile
sovrapposizione delle radici e dei contenuti sottostanti talune credenze religiose con la
vasta sfera di produzioni mentali che noi chiamiamo deliri.
In quanto studiosi di Scienze Umanistiche siamo consapevoli di confrontarci con un compito straordinario quando si tratta di comprendere come il sentire spirituale dell'uomo confluisca nelle principali religioni esistenti. Lo sviluppo di questo ambito di studi è di innegabile importanza. Non è un caso infatti che al Terzo Congresso Mondiale di Psichiatria Culturale sia pervenuto un così largo numero di articoli sulla relazione che intercorre tra spiritualità e cultura, tanto da spingere il comitato scientifico ad organizzare una giornata pre-congressuale, per una più attenta analisi delle questioni teoriche sollevate.
The author analyses the origin of the culturally based mechanism of detachment, considering its effects on consciousness and mental health. The cultural framework of this mechanism is connected to mystical roots and conceptions of spirituality and religion, and a narrative comparison is made from polytheistic to monotheistic religions. From a cultural psychiatric perspective, anthropological considerations are made for the shift from dissociative states, culture bound acute psychogenic reactions and chronic psychotic disorders as schizophrenia.
The article is divided in multiple parts. The first one verges on exchange of emotions, thoughts and beliefs between the Author and the Xhosa people in South Africa and later with the aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert. The second part focuses on the internal complexity of intercultural politics supported by western sociocultural agencies designated to provide a theoretical and practical approach to the concept of Spirituality. The Author uses the comparative method of cultural and transcultural psychiatry to deal with these issues, in order to evaluate the coherence of the values collection that subtend the culturally determinated realm of the supernatural. The Author, such as personal network, congress meetings, academic querelles, university projects and cooperation with international foundations. Therefore, the Author has preferred to analyse these crucial themes by using a narrating voice to show the intricate structure of relations between different representations of the world that underlies behind the scenes.
À l'Église chrétienne a permis aux structures vaticanes non seulement de promouvoir la théologie de la dévotion mais aussi de développer une imbrication stratégique avec de nombreuses activités pratiques : universités, hôpitaux, centres Caritas pour immigrés, diverses ONG opérant dans les pays en vote de développement.
Cet article souligne un certain nombre de lignes directrices pour une approche bio/psycho/culturelle correcte de l'étude des expériences religieuses et reporte une évidente contradiction inhérente à la coexistence de la pratique de l'exorcisme et des interventions conventionnelles de soins médicaux.
The erudition with which the two Authors analyse both the issue of relativism and phenomena such as the globalization of cultures and multiculturalism – all issues specifically falling within the scope of cultural psychiatry – is such as to lead me to deem it advisable to review the book in order to enable the scholars of this discipline to take part in a debate that, being conducted from such eminent chairs, is sure to have a considerable influence in giving new shape to the psychological and cultural stands taken in most of the Western world.
Psychoanalyst, is not consistent with the development of the text which clearly focuses on an
update of the contributions of Transcultural Psychiatry to the discipline of Psychiatry as a whole.
Regretfully therefore the reader must find his own way through the text and only subsequently
understand the essence of the chapter, which delves into the importance of culture on the
aetiology of mental illness, in diagnostic procedures and on therapeutic approaches.
The fact that Favazza’s chapter is contained in a psychiatry textbook spurred the Author to
write an introduction that more specifically addresses both the field of Psychiatry as a whole and
that of Cultural Psychiatry. In fact, the first pages present a summary of the characteristics of our
discipline that tends to appear simplistic for the simple fact that the Author chooses paradigmatic
examples in supporting theoretical assumptions. The text however is far from being simplistic and
it is the clarity of exposition that makes this chapter an easy reading.
psychiatrist’s most proper approach to the diachronic and ethnographic broadness of the human
struggle for maintaining well-being:
“People have sought comfort for their miseries and a cure for their troubles since prehistoric
time” (Romm, 1994).
The following paragraphs are focused on an epistemological progression that step by step
elucidates the state of the art of national and international psychiatry.
I wish to extensively quote most of the Author’s reflections, since they go straight to the core of
the topics addressed, resulting in a summary, rather than a review.
We aim to simplify the complex debate on these issues. The general tendency is to label magic as an archaism, a prelogical disruption of the normal flow of reason that, sooner or later, reflects a pathogenic potential.
Conversely, some consider religious belief systems as incapable of negative influencing the development of the ego. Such a simplistic approach to the function of the two forms of supernatural belief system has not been attempted in the work of the many authors representing the Italian Schools of Anthropology and Psychiatry.