New mini series on colonial psychiatry

As followers of the History of Psychiatry since 1500 might already know, the first two series of podcasts are being used around the world by medical professionals to broaden their perspectives, for teaching in a variety of locations, and by a wide range of interested people – in particular, the College of Medicine in the University of Malawi is using them to train local psychiatrists in a part of the world which has very few.

Europe has 100 psychiatrists for every million people whereas sub-Saharan Africa has less than 1 per million.

There are strong similarities between a country like Malawi and Britain two or three centuries ago. With few specialists, people used a wide variety of therapies such as folk remedies and even witch doctors. When those with serious mental disorders come to the attention of psychiatrists in Malawi, they have usually been suffering for much longer than is the case in the developed world. Again, that is like the past, when there were very few effective chemical treatments and when people wore the appearance (and made the sounds) of madness much more openly.

A special four-part mini-series on colonial psychiatry, concentrating on Anglophone southern and eastern Africa between the 1880s and 1960s, launches on Tuesday 23 January. This area covers the geographical and cultural area in which Malawi is located. Between 1891 and 1964, when it became independent, Malawi was the British Protectorate of Nyasaland.

The mini-series on colonial psychiatry will run for four weeks, slotting in between Series 2 and Series 3 of the History of Psychiatry podcasts, and will be available on SoundCloud.