Historical Understandings of Madness in Nigeria

historic Understandings of furore in NigeriaMadness in culture is amiable disoblige universal?This paper will look at the issue of rabidness in culture, looking at the issue of whether mental dis battle arrays are a universal concept, with particular reference to the Nigerian culture. As Sadowsky (2003) argues, the crude dictum what is dotty in one culture might be considered of sound mind(predicate) in a nonher described the approach to heathenish psychiatry query regarding mental illness for many years that psychiatric disorders were viewed proportionally suggested that these disorders were no much than pagan constructions and thus not real diseases (see Sadowsky, 2003 p. 210). In his book, imperial beard hell Institutions of Madness in Colonial south-west Nigeria, Sadowsky focuses on vehemence, frenzy, as a hearty process. Whilst not denying the naive realism of betise as an illness, Sadowksy (1999) argues that insaneness and habitualcy must be viewed at all times, and especially in the background of a Nigerian compound setting, as part of a continuum as Sadowsky states, the unsound occupy a position on the spectrum containing the normal and the pathological (1999 p. 51), and are results of specific social and political circumstances, which must be fully understood in order to understand the label manic-depressive within a compound Nigerian setting.Thus, this essay looks at how cult in Nigeria evolved in the colonial period, and beyond, and how madness was understood within a colonial framework. The essay then moves on to look at heathenish treatments of madness in Nigeria, and genetic and physiologic accounts vs. cultural and historical differences in fellow feeling madness within a colonial stage setting, using causas from Nigeria. Finally, syndromes that go in and go, such as hysteria and delusions, will be discussed, using the example of persecution delusions from studies of devil mental asylums in Nigeria, as discussed in the work of Sadowsky (1999).The accounting of madness in NigeriaFocusing on two mental asylums in Nigeria, the Yaba lunatic asylum and the Aro Mental Hospital in Abeokuta, Sadowsky (1999) provides a redirect examination of madness in Nigeria, from colonial times to independence. Sadowskys argument in his 1999 book, Imperial Bedlam Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, is that finished developing an understanding of these institutions, it is possible to come to understand the struggles within the colonial state over the use of asylums, negotiations in colonial society around the definitions of insanity, the processes which led to confinement and release and the formation of specific psychiatric colloquy (p. 9). The book provides an examination of how, when and, most importantly, why Afri rafts were defined as insane and the ways in which definitions of insanity were related to the political context pf colonialism (Stilwell, 2000). Sadowsky (1999) does not ar gue that colonialism caused insanity but, rather, argues that the content and expression of madness reflected the pressures, stressed and strains brought on by colonial rule, thus providing a social history of insanity in a colonial setting.As Sadowsky (1999) argues, the debate surrounding psychiatric labeling theory must be centered on the ways in which mental illness is a construct of the particular historical formations (p. 112) colonial asylums could be placed on a spectrum from custodial and coercive to validatory and therapeutic, although the vast majority of mental asylums in colonial Nigeria were artlessly coercive, due to the cross-cultural barriers and the different perceptions of social relations as held by African patients and colonial medical staff and authorities. It was only well in to post-colonial times that subtler forms of social control and therapeutic practice evolved.Cultural treatments of madness in NigeriaAs has been seen, Sadowksy (1999) argues that madnes s and normalcy must be viewed at all times, and especially in the context of a Nigerian colonial setting, as part of a continuum as Sadowsky states, the insane occupy a position on the spectrum containing the normal and the pathological (1999 p. 51), and are products of specific social and political circumstances, which must be fully understood in order to understand the label insane within a colonial Nigerian setting. Thus, the cultural context of madness, in terms of understanding madness from a culturally relativistic viewpoint, and from the viewpoint of colonialism, is fundamental in understanding the cultural treatments of madness in Nigeria. Accounts of madness and understanding the responses to madness in a colonial Nigerian setting cannot be understood, interpreted, without also fully understanding the historical, social and political setting at that time.In general, however, it can be seen, from Sadowskys work, that madness was treated, in a blanket manner, as a response t o colonialism, as a manifestation that the primitive Nigerians could not dish out with modernisation and that, as such, delusions, deliria and hysteria were almost to be expected, as a reaction against colonialism. Responding to these outbreaks of madness with force, by opening asylums and confining the mad to these asylums, with olive-sized actual medical care, was a way in which to silence the mad and to be able to continue on with the aims and practices of colonialism.The genetic and physiological accounts vs. cultural/historical differenceMental illness is currently well understood, and treated, as that an illness. However, as has been shown by Sadowsky (1997 1999 2003), within a colonial context in Nigeria, mental illness was often only understood in the context of colonialism i.e., mental illness was understood as a reaction to the modernization brought about by the colonizers, which, it was hypothesized, the primitive Nigerians could not cope with, leading them to madness. However, as Sadowsky (2003) points out, even within colonial governments, there were some who believed, in some degree, in cultural relativism.I discovered many administrators who believed that building asylums was a liberal idea because Europeans could not know what madness was to Africans, and that, therefore Europeans should not be imposing alien cultural forms (p. 211). Thus, at least within the context of colonial Nigeria, madness was not understood, or treated, as an illness, rather as a response to colonialism, and the debate surrounding madness and its genetic and physiological bases, and the different cultural or historical manifestations of madness were not entered in to during colonial rule.Syndromes that come and go hysteriaFocusing on two mental asylums in Nigeria, the Yaba lunatic asylum and the Aro Mental Hospital in Abeokuta, Sadowsky argues in his book, Imperial Bedlam Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, which uses first hand accounts of delus ions of the mentally ill, as gathered from actual muse histories of these two mental asylums, the ravings of patients are important historical documents in that they can be used for social analyses, showing that the social context of colony fostered the development of certain kinds of delusions, especially delusions of persecution. Such madness, Sadowsky argues, threatened the colonial worldview, and, to some extent, colonial power, drawing attention, as they did, to the structures and inherent contradictions of colonial power, and, as such, the psychiatric environment tended to class any actions that threatened colonial ideology as madness, such that, as Sadowsky argues, the ideologies of colonial medical staff reflected the anxieties and insecurities of the colonizers themselves (Sadowsky, 1999). As Sadowsky states, the content of delusions repeatedly referred to specifics of Nigerian colonial history religious conversion, alien domination, the changing justice systemand the s truggle for independence (1999 p.115).Conclusion match to Sadowsky (1997 1999 2003), historically, madness in Nigeria seems to concur been understood entirely in terms of colonial power, in terms of madness being understood as a reaction against colonial rule, not as an illness per se, and, as such, madness was not treated objectively, but as one more manifestation of dissatisfaction against colonial rule. The mad were thus treated almost as dissenters rather than being treated correctly, as ill individuals. No more is this highlighted than when accounts of treatments for delusions are given in Sadowsky (1999) as taken from individual illustration histories. As shown in these histories, medical staff often played a purely custodial role, not a medical role, with only mild therapeutic programs being offered, if any at all (Sadowsky, 2003 p. 211). It was with some trepidation, and opposition, that mental asylums were set up at all, in a colonial Nigerian context, with little medica l help being offered, and these asylums quickly becoming overcrowded, with tinny living conditions (Sadowsky, 2003).Thus, as has been seen throughout this essay, based on the work of Sadowsky (1997 1999 2003), which looks at madness in colonial times in Nigeria, the understanding of madness in culture is an extremely relative matter, perfectly illustrated through the study of this time period and in this place, which explained madness as a product of colonial rule. Madness, as we understand it now, is obviously not culturally relative and is a universal concept it is an illness, which needs correct treatment in order to overcome the illness. If this had been understood during the period of colonial rule in Nigeria, the many years of suffering for many thousands of insane individuals would not have had to have been endured they would have received correct, timely, treatment and would not have whiled extraneous their lives being little more than captives in colonial asylums.Referenc esSadowsky Jonathan, Psychiatry and colonial ideology in Nigeria, Bulletin of the History of Medicine,71 (1997)94-111.Sadowsky, Jonathan, Imperial Bedlam Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria, Berkeley University of California Press, 1999.Sadowsky Jonathan, The social world and the reality of mental illness lessons from colonial psychiatry, Harvard Review of Psychiatry 2003, 11(4)210-4.Stilwell, S., Imperial Bedlam Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria by Jonathan Sadowsky, Journal of interdisciplinary History, 31(2) (2000) 322-323.