5. Africa

Abstract

COLLOMB, one of the leading psychiatrists on the African continent, has made many outstanding contributions illuminating African psychiatry. Abstracts of articles by him and by his coworkers based on their observations in Senegal are presented. Subjects reported on include clinical syndromes, suicide, alcohol and cannabis habituation, juvenile delinquency, psychosomatic conditions, methods of resolving the Oedipus complex, and the psychotherapeutic effect of an initiation ceremony on persons possessed by evil spirits. WALTON, on the basis of his experiences in the Republic of South Africa, discusses modifications required in the clinical approach in psychiatric practice in a multiracial society. JILEK AND JILEK demonstrate that clinical impressions obtained in Tanganyika could be blindly validated by Rorschach interpretation carried out by a psycho logist unfamiliar with African culture. In the previous issue Psychiatric Disorder among the Yoruba by ALEXANDER H. LEIGHTON and his coworkers was reviewed by a psychiatrist; a review of this book by a cultural anthropologist with exten sive experience in Africa is included in this issue.