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Biomedical subjects

M V Bührmann

Publications and source records attributed to M V Bührmann.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1985

Witchcraft, witchcraft beliefs and the black people of South Africa. Some medicolegal considerations.

The limitations and validity of psychiatric diagnosis, especially as it pertains to medicolegal cases, are discussed. Two clinical cases are used to demonstrate some of the problems. Two young black men were facing charges of murdering a woman; in one case the victim was not a relation and in the other she was the subject's mother. During the period of observation no hard signs of psychosis could be demonstrated, yet the second subject later became overtly psychotic, while the first was and remained normal. Suggestions about diagnostic procedures are made.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1982

Thwasa and bewitchment.

Two mental states occurring in black people, thwasa and bewitchment, are differentiated from schizophrenia and catatonic schizophrenia. The aetiology is seen as arising from the relationship of the afflicted individual to his ancestors, i.e. either positive or negative. An important concept of analytical psychology is that the attitude of the ego can constellate positive or negative complexes form the unconscious. This concept is useful for a better understanding of thwasa and bewitchment.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

The inner reality of the black man and his criminal responsibility.

Psychiatrists and psychologists are often requested by the legal fraternity to report on the mental state of Black people accused of an alleged crime. The question raised in this paper is whether personnel trained in the Western tradition, applying Western categories of mental states, are able to overcome their ethnocentricity. When the interviewer and the person interviewed are from widely different cultural groups, the former should make every effort to enter the inner world of the latter.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1977

Western psychiatry and the Xhosa patient.

The difficulties of the Western-trained psychiatrist in dealing with Xhosa patients are threefold; the language and intricacies of its usage, the cultural beliefs, customs and rituals and the inapplicability of the Western psychiatric model to people of a different culture. To a lesser extent, all White medical staff experience the same problems.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1973

The dying child.

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Adolescent↗