Roland Littlewood - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Roland Littlewood

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Minorities and the Mental Health Act: Patterns of Explanation

The bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Nov 1, 1986

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Islamic fatalism’: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London – an interview study 2

Anthropology & Medicine, Nov 15, 2013

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated freque... more An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London.

Research paper thumbnail of The doctor's medicine and the ambiguity of amulets: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London – an interview study – 1

Anthropology & Medicine, Sep 2, 2013

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous t... more An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more distant biomedical framework fits with the newer modernising 'High' Islam (literate, scripturalist, puritanical, unitarian, urban, clerical, perhaps masculinist), as opposed to Hindu-inflected traditional Sufi Islam in Bangladesh (peasant, popular, syncretic, saintly, magical, ecstatic and possibly more sympathetic to women's experience).

Research paper thumbnail of Racism, diagnosis and treatment

British Journal of Psychiatry, Sep 1, 1990

Research paper thumbnail of Conversion from British Hinduism to Christianity: an anthropological study

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

This paper examines conversion from "Hinduism" to Christianity in India and in the UK. To date wo... more This paper examines conversion from "Hinduism" to Christianity in India and in the UK. To date work in this area has focused upon Hindu-Christian conversion among Hindus in India largely focusing upon Dalits. It explores the experience of Hindu Christian conversion through five case studies and focuses upon antecedents and consequences of conversion. It stresses the central role of profound religious experiences in those converting and the resultant disharmony among families and the wider Hindu community. While structural factors may be important for some of these individuals, all have undergone a form of metaphysical and intellectual conversion. The conversion narratives cited suggest that conversion experiences are beneficial psychologically in terms of providing a new sense of meaning, facilitating coping and increasing contentment.

Research paper thumbnail of Anthropology and British Psychiatry

Anthropology and British Psychiatry

Anthropology Today, Feb 1, 1986

11. Letter, G.Elliot-Smith to Edwin Embree (former Secretary, then Director of Division of Studie... more 11. Letter, G.Elliot-Smith to Edwin Embree (former Secretary, then Director of Division of Studies, RF), 12/1/26. File 401AD, University College, Anthropology, 1924, 1926-1927. RF, RAC. 12. Letter, Elliot-Smith to Embree, 3/14/27. File 401AD, University College, Anthropology, 19143, 1926-1927. RF, RAC. 13. See George W. Stocking, Jr., ed., Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, 1983), and Ernest Gellner, 'Malinowski and the dialectic of past and present'. Times Literary Supplement, June 7, 1985. 14. B.Malinowski. Practical Anthropology. Africa, 1929, 2:22-38, p.22. 15. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Memorandum on Anthropological Research: 11/17/30. Transmitted with a letter, Radcliffe-Brown to Day, 11/11/30. Folder 25, 910 Programme and Policy Anthropology Cultural, 1931-1956. RF, 3, 910, 3, RACV. It is worth examining the Memorandum in some detail as this document is the earliest clear statement from RadcliffeBrown about his perspective. His views were influential inside the RF. 16. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Memorandum: pp.3-4. RadcliffeBrown's later protestation against being labelled as a functionalist does seem rather weak in light of this document. See A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'On Social Structure, Presidential Adress, Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute, 1940, 70:1-12; and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Functionalism: A Protes: American Anthropologist, 1949, 51: 320-323. 17. For example, Richard Thurnwald, Economics in Primitive Communities (London: Oxford University Press, 1932); C.G. Brown and A. McD. Hutt, Anthropology in Action (London: Oxford University Press, 1938); Monica Hunter, Reaction to Conquest: Effects of Contacts with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1936); I. Schapera, A Handbook of TswanalLaws and Custom (London: Oxford University Press 1938); and Audrew Richards, Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia (London: Oxford University Press, 1939). The Institute cooperated with the Medical Research Council in a coordinated programme of nutritional research work in the Empire In addition to Richard's book, the IIALC also devoted a special edition of Africa to problems of nutrition. See Africa, 1936, IX, 2. 18. Lucy Mair, ed., Methods of Study of Culture Contact (Oxford University Press, 1938). 19. Audrey I. Richards. The Village Census in the Study of Culture Contact. Africa, 1935, 8:20-23, p.21.

Research paper thumbnail of The Culture-Bound Syndromes: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological Interest. Edited by R. C. Simons and C. C. Hughes. Pp. 516; £54.25 hb, £21.95 pb.) D. Reidel: Dordrecht. 1985

Psychological Medicine, Feb 1, 1987

Research paper thumbnail of Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: Bodies and Persons: Comparative Perspectives from Africa and Melanesia

Anthropological Theory, Jun 1, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Strange, Incredible and Impossible Things: The Early Anthropology of Reginald Scot

Strange, Incredible and Impossible Things: The Early Anthropology of Reginald Scot

Transcultural Psychiatry, Jun 1, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Mental Illness Among Immigrants to Britain

Mental Illness Among Immigrants to Britain

Aliens and Alienists, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of (The ‘Culture-Bound Syndromes’ of the O Dominant Culture: Culture, Psychopathology and Biomedicine†

(The ‘Culture-Bound Syndromes’ of the O Dominant Culture: Culture, Psychopathology and Biomedicine†

Transcultural Psychiatry, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Another Bart's Alumnus: W. H. R. Rivers

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1985

information-processing hypothesis, leads to the conclusion that a disease entity â€oe¿ schizophre... more information-processing hypothesis, leads to the conclusion that a disease entity â€oe¿ schizophrenia― in the traditional sense does not exist, but only a quite unpredictable and to some extent always open life process in individuals with a particular kind of vulnerability. If valid, these new concepts have important theoretical and practical implications.

Research paper thumbnail of Transcultural Psychiatry

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1986

sum of the 11 other large neutral amino acids also were raised (P<0.02, <0.001 and <0.001 respect... more sum of the 11 other large neutral amino acids also were raised (P<0.02, <0.001 and <0.001 respectively). In view of the mode of entry of amino acids into the brain, these data point to a possible source of abnormality in the central nervous system in young adults with Downs syndrome in terms of availability of substrate for protein synthesis. It is suggested that this aspect of metabolism may merit further investigation both in Downs syndrome and in senile dementia itself.

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic nomenclature

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of Personality Disorders and Culture: Clinical and Conceptual Interactions. By R. D. Alarcon, E. Foulks & M. Vakkur. New York: Wiley. 1998. 310 pp. £35.50 (hb). ISBN 0-471-14964-0

Personality Disorders and Culture: Clinical and Conceptual Interactions. By R. D. Alarcon, E. Foulks & M. Vakkur. New York: Wiley. 1998. 310 pp. £35.50 (hb). ISBN 0-471-14964-0

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1999

This book, written by a member of the British Psychological Society working party set up in 1993 ... more This book, written by a member of the British Psychological Society working party set up in 1993 to examine scientific and professional issues relating to recovered memory, injects some welcome sanity into what has become a confused and troubled area. It describes the emotive exchanges that have taken place between those aligned with the false memory movement and psychotherapists, and it presents the scientific and clinical evidence for and against the possibility that psychotherapists can induce in their clients an erroneous belief that they were sexually abused in childhood. The book is impressive in its breadth of presentation. The early chapters deal extensively with the academic, clinical and empirical literature on memory and memory disorders. It describes how false memories can be experimentally induced. It offers neurophysiological reasons why early experiences cannot be remembered, but provides a convincing example of a boy who seemed able to remember his own birth. It reviews recent reports of reduced hippocampal volume, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging, in subjects who have experienced prolonged or repeated severe stress, including women who were repeatedly abused in childhood. It concludes that memories undoubtedly can be actively inhibited, but points out that both abusers and the abused are capable of repression. The later chapters are more psychotherapeutic. In a review of Freud's reported cases, Mollon concludes that Freud was not, as some have maintained, a 'recovered memory therapist'. He wrote, "To assume that psychoanalysts search for buried memories, analogous to lost videorecordings, is to misunderstand profoundly the analytic endeavour . . . The objects of repression, in most of Freud's examples, are desires, feelings fantasies and thoughts". However, it is not unheard of for clients to recover memories of abuse during psychotherapy and then turn angrily upon their abusers. In such cases, therapists have a role in help ing them to come to terms with these memories. The final chapter comprises concise sections on characteristics of early traumatised patients and notes that may be given to them; factors contributing to false memories; and the principles of treatment. There are about 450 references. The insights of this book extend beyond recovered memory to the wider practice of psychotherapy.

Research paper thumbnail of The Beginning Of The End: everyday life in the valley

The Beginning Of The End: everyday life in the valley

Pathology and Identity, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Interest Questionnaire, Fourth Edition

Religious Interest Questionnaire, Fourth Edition

PsycTESTS Dataset, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Nature and the millennium

Nature and the millennium

Pathology and Identity, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of Putting out the life

Putting out the life

Anthropology and autobiography, 1992

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic Minorities and the Mental Health Act: Patterns of Explanation

The bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Nov 1, 1986

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Islamic fatalism’: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London – an interview study 2

Anthropology & Medicine, Nov 15, 2013

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated freque... more An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London.

Research paper thumbnail of The doctor's medicine and the ambiguity of amulets: life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London – an interview study – 1

Anthropology & Medicine, Sep 2, 2013

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous t... more An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more distant biomedical framework fits with the newer modernising 'High' Islam (literate, scripturalist, puritanical, unitarian, urban, clerical, perhaps masculinist), as opposed to Hindu-inflected traditional Sufi Islam in Bangladesh (peasant, popular, syncretic, saintly, magical, ecstatic and possibly more sympathetic to women's experience).

Research paper thumbnail of Racism, diagnosis and treatment

British Journal of Psychiatry, Sep 1, 1990

Research paper thumbnail of Conversion from British Hinduism to Christianity: an anthropological study

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

This paper examines conversion from "Hinduism" to Christianity in India and in the UK. To date wo... more This paper examines conversion from "Hinduism" to Christianity in India and in the UK. To date work in this area has focused upon Hindu-Christian conversion among Hindus in India largely focusing upon Dalits. It explores the experience of Hindu Christian conversion through five case studies and focuses upon antecedents and consequences of conversion. It stresses the central role of profound religious experiences in those converting and the resultant disharmony among families and the wider Hindu community. While structural factors may be important for some of these individuals, all have undergone a form of metaphysical and intellectual conversion. The conversion narratives cited suggest that conversion experiences are beneficial psychologically in terms of providing a new sense of meaning, facilitating coping and increasing contentment.

Research paper thumbnail of Anthropology and British Psychiatry

Anthropology and British Psychiatry

Anthropology Today, Feb 1, 1986

11. Letter, G.Elliot-Smith to Edwin Embree (former Secretary, then Director of Division of Studie... more 11. Letter, G.Elliot-Smith to Edwin Embree (former Secretary, then Director of Division of Studies, RF), 12/1/26. File 401AD, University College, Anthropology, 1924, 1926-1927. RF, RAC. 12. Letter, Elliot-Smith to Embree, 3/14/27. File 401AD, University College, Anthropology, 19143, 1926-1927. RF, RAC. 13. See George W. Stocking, Jr., ed., Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin, 1983), and Ernest Gellner, 'Malinowski and the dialectic of past and present'. Times Literary Supplement, June 7, 1985. 14. B.Malinowski. Practical Anthropology. Africa, 1929, 2:22-38, p.22. 15. A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Memorandum on Anthropological Research: 11/17/30. Transmitted with a letter, Radcliffe-Brown to Day, 11/11/30. Folder 25, 910 Programme and Policy Anthropology Cultural, 1931-1956. RF, 3, 910, 3, RACV. It is worth examining the Memorandum in some detail as this document is the earliest clear statement from RadcliffeBrown about his perspective. His views were influential inside the RF. 16. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Memorandum: pp.3-4. RadcliffeBrown's later protestation against being labelled as a functionalist does seem rather weak in light of this document. See A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'On Social Structure, Presidential Adress, Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute, 1940, 70:1-12; and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, 'Functionalism: A Protes: American Anthropologist, 1949, 51: 320-323. 17. For example, Richard Thurnwald, Economics in Primitive Communities (London: Oxford University Press, 1932); C.G. Brown and A. McD. Hutt, Anthropology in Action (London: Oxford University Press, 1938); Monica Hunter, Reaction to Conquest: Effects of Contacts with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1936); I. Schapera, A Handbook of TswanalLaws and Custom (London: Oxford University Press 1938); and Audrew Richards, Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia (London: Oxford University Press, 1939). The Institute cooperated with the Medical Research Council in a coordinated programme of nutritional research work in the Empire In addition to Richard's book, the IIALC also devoted a special edition of Africa to problems of nutrition. See Africa, 1936, IX, 2. 18. Lucy Mair, ed., Methods of Study of Culture Contact (Oxford University Press, 1938). 19. Audrey I. Richards. The Village Census in the Study of Culture Contact. Africa, 1935, 8:20-23, p.21.

Research paper thumbnail of The Culture-Bound Syndromes: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological Interest. Edited by R. C. Simons and C. C. Hughes. Pp. 516; £54.25 hb, £21.95 pb.) D. Reidel: Dordrecht. 1985

Psychological Medicine, Feb 1, 1987

Research paper thumbnail of Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: Bodies and Persons: Comparative Perspectives from Africa and Melanesia

Anthropological Theory, Jun 1, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Strange, Incredible and Impossible Things: The Early Anthropology of Reginald Scot

Strange, Incredible and Impossible Things: The Early Anthropology of Reginald Scot

Transcultural Psychiatry, Jun 1, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Mental Illness Among Immigrants to Britain

Mental Illness Among Immigrants to Britain

Aliens and Alienists, 2005

Research paper thumbnail of (The ‘Culture-Bound Syndromes’ of the O Dominant Culture: Culture, Psychopathology and Biomedicine†

(The ‘Culture-Bound Syndromes’ of the O Dominant Culture: Culture, Psychopathology and Biomedicine†

Transcultural Psychiatry, 2018

Research paper thumbnail of Another Bart's Alumnus: W. H. R. Rivers

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1985

information-processing hypothesis, leads to the conclusion that a disease entity â€oe¿ schizophre... more information-processing hypothesis, leads to the conclusion that a disease entity â€oe¿ schizophrenia― in the traditional sense does not exist, but only a quite unpredictable and to some extent always open life process in individuals with a particular kind of vulnerability. If valid, these new concepts have important theoretical and practical implications.

Research paper thumbnail of Transcultural Psychiatry

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1986

sum of the 11 other large neutral amino acids also were raised (P<0.02, <0.001 and <0.001 respect... more sum of the 11 other large neutral amino acids also were raised (P<0.02, <0.001 and <0.001 respectively). In view of the mode of entry of amino acids into the brain, these data point to a possible source of abnormality in the central nervous system in young adults with Downs syndrome in terms of availability of substrate for protein synthesis. It is suggested that this aspect of metabolism may merit further investigation both in Downs syndrome and in senile dementia itself.

Research paper thumbnail of Ethnic nomenclature

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1994

Research paper thumbnail of Personality Disorders and Culture: Clinical and Conceptual Interactions. By R. D. Alarcon, E. Foulks & M. Vakkur. New York: Wiley. 1998. 310 pp. £35.50 (hb). ISBN 0-471-14964-0

Personality Disorders and Culture: Clinical and Conceptual Interactions. By R. D. Alarcon, E. Foulks & M. Vakkur. New York: Wiley. 1998. 310 pp. £35.50 (hb). ISBN 0-471-14964-0

British Journal of Psychiatry, 1999

This book, written by a member of the British Psychological Society working party set up in 1993 ... more This book, written by a member of the British Psychological Society working party set up in 1993 to examine scientific and professional issues relating to recovered memory, injects some welcome sanity into what has become a confused and troubled area. It describes the emotive exchanges that have taken place between those aligned with the false memory movement and psychotherapists, and it presents the scientific and clinical evidence for and against the possibility that psychotherapists can induce in their clients an erroneous belief that they were sexually abused in childhood. The book is impressive in its breadth of presentation. The early chapters deal extensively with the academic, clinical and empirical literature on memory and memory disorders. It describes how false memories can be experimentally induced. It offers neurophysiological reasons why early experiences cannot be remembered, but provides a convincing example of a boy who seemed able to remember his own birth. It reviews recent reports of reduced hippocampal volume, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging, in subjects who have experienced prolonged or repeated severe stress, including women who were repeatedly abused in childhood. It concludes that memories undoubtedly can be actively inhibited, but points out that both abusers and the abused are capable of repression. The later chapters are more psychotherapeutic. In a review of Freud's reported cases, Mollon concludes that Freud was not, as some have maintained, a 'recovered memory therapist'. He wrote, "To assume that psychoanalysts search for buried memories, analogous to lost videorecordings, is to misunderstand profoundly the analytic endeavour . . . The objects of repression, in most of Freud's examples, are desires, feelings fantasies and thoughts". However, it is not unheard of for clients to recover memories of abuse during psychotherapy and then turn angrily upon their abusers. In such cases, therapists have a role in help ing them to come to terms with these memories. The final chapter comprises concise sections on characteristics of early traumatised patients and notes that may be given to them; factors contributing to false memories; and the principles of treatment. There are about 450 references. The insights of this book extend beyond recovered memory to the wider practice of psychotherapy.

Research paper thumbnail of The Beginning Of The End: everyday life in the valley

The Beginning Of The End: everyday life in the valley

Pathology and Identity, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of Religious Interest Questionnaire, Fourth Edition

Religious Interest Questionnaire, Fourth Edition

PsycTESTS Dataset, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Nature and the millennium

Nature and the millennium

Pathology and Identity, 1993

Research paper thumbnail of Putting out the life

Putting out the life

Anthropology and autobiography, 1992