The School of Music at Cardiff University is seeking to appoint a lecturer in Ethnomusicology with a specialist interest in the music of Africa or in the African Diaspora.

Ethnomusicology is a comparatively new discipline at Cardiff but one that has already established itself as a vibrant part of the teaching and research culture. Under the direction of John Morgan O’Connell (appointed in 2006) it is taught at all levels, from first-year undergraduate, through a specialist MA in Ethnomusicology, to PhD. Student demand at all levels is high and the School is seeking to appoint a second ethnomusicologist to work alongside John Morgan O’Connell to take the provision into the next phase of development.

Existing specialist interest within the discipline includes music in the Islamic world and the Celtic tradition, emphasis at present being placed on an anthropological approach to the study of music. To complement these areas of expertise, the School is seeking to appoint a lecturer with a specialist interest in the music of Africa or in the African Diaspora. The willingness to interact with the wider interests of the School of Music (for instance in African-Caribbean music, popular music and jazz) is desirable.

Within Cardiff University there are several scholars in other disciplines with specialist interests that intersect with those of Ethnomusicology, especially in the areas of anthropological, cultural and religious studies. The presence of a specially designated centre for Islamic studies on campus and the proximity of a national museum for ethnographic research in St Fagans are also noteworthy. In addition, since Cardiff was one of the world’s busiest industrial ports during the nineteenth century, the city boasts a diverse range of communities, all fully integrated into Cardiff’s social and musical life today.

Job Details:

Reference: 2010/0377

Closing date: 15 October 2010

Type: Academic

Duration: Permanent

Hours of work: Full-Time, 35 hours per week

Date of appointment: Post must be taken up by 1 February 2010

Salary: £37839 - £43840 per annum (Grade 7)

Full details of, and an application for this new position can be found at the following address: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jobs/music.html.

The Institute of Popular Music (IPM) is currently advertising a post-doctoral research position and a fully funded three year doctoral studentship. Both positions are attached to a three year international collaborative project exploring popular music heritage, cultural memory and local identity in Europe. The project is funded by HERA JRP (Humanities in the European Research Area Joint Research Programme supported by a network of national Research Councils).

The successful applicants will work alongside the Project Investigator, Professor Sara Cohen, on the UK component of the project, and join a team of researchers working at the IPM on this and two other related projects funded by the Australia Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

For details of the studentship please contact Filomena Saltao (filomena.saltao(at)liv.ac.uk ). For further details on the post-doctoral position please see http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/job_vacancies/research/R-572900.htm .

The closing date for applications is September 3rd.

http://www.gsmd.ac.uk/school/about_us/job_vacancies.html

I’d be really grateful if you could pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested. The closing date is September 13th.

Many thanks and best wishes
Helena

Dr. Helena Gaunt
Assistant Principal (Research and Academic Development)
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Barbican
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DT
+44 (020)7 382 5282
+44 (0)7825 388060

I write to ask for your help identifying candidates for Society for the Humanities Fellowships for the 2011-12 academic year. The Society’s theme will be Sound: Culture, Theory, Practice, Politics. A description of the theme has been printed below. We seek scholars from various disciplines who are interested in investigating this topic from different perspectives.

Please do forward this call for nominations to any friends and colleagues at other institutions who might be interested in nominating someone or applying for a fellowship. The procedures for application can be found at our website: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/society_fellowships.html

Fellowships are open to scholars of any age and rank, from this country or abroad. The stipend is $45,000 per annum. Fellows spend most of their time in research but are asked to teach one seminar on a related topic.

To nominate a candidate, please send the candidate’s name and complete mailing address to: humctr-mailbox@cornell.edu.
We will write to them and invite them to apply for a fellowship.
The postmark deadline for all fellowship applications is October 1, 2010. Please submit nominations as soon as possible to allow as much time as possible for the candidates to prepare their applications.

Focal Theme for 2011-2012: Sound: Culture, Theory, Practice, Politics
The Society for the Humanities invites scholars to reflect this year upon the theme of “Sound: Culture, Theory, Practice, Politics” as a means of analyzing the resonance of historical and contemporary representations, movements, ideas, and negations of sound.

Representations of sound abound in visual, textual, and aural realms. Storytelling, poetry, music, theater, oral histories, political speeches, and noise find their way in and out of texts, images, and recordings as various kinds of sound travel through different media. From “voicing” to “listening,” sound shapes the framework of much critical and philosophical analysis of the body, affect, and social publics. How does sound function in establishing parameters of psycho-cultural imaginaries, social practice, religious ritual, and political regulation across the globe? How do manifestations of sound differ in the global context of capitalism and cosmopolitanism, not to mention the specificities of ethnic difference and cultural diversity?

How are “voice,” “hearing,” and “listening” defined in various disciplines and in relation to aesthetic properties of the disciplines, such as meter, rhythm, montage, and amplification? What criteria are used for differentiating natural from artificial sounds? Does sound challenge disciplinary distinctions between the visual and the oral/aural/tactile? Can the loud noises of industrial culture be distinguished from the synthetic sounds of electronic music, the stammerings of performance and philosophical manifestos, and the burps and sighs of comics and cinematic sound tracks?

Beyond music’s embodiment of sound as artistic form, applicants are welcome to consider the broader sense of sonic environments, the role of silence in private and public space and performance, and the ways in which sound underlies life itself, either naturally (the “pink noise” of earthquakes and ocean currents) or negatively (from environmental pollution to torture and warfare). Possible topics might include the use of sound to mark the passage of time; the correlation of sound to the movement of the body in dance and performance; deafness and disability studies; the sonic promise of cartographic projects of social movements and migrations. Of equal import are the cultural impact of the electronic and digital age and the harmonious collusion of the virtual and the visceral in internet-driven communities. Applicants might also consider sound’s importance to visual studies, the cultural and ethnic specificity of acoustic fields and rhythms in the age of sampling and mixing, and the gender import of voice and spoken narrative.

This interdisciplinary invitation is open to study of the broadest cross-cultural range of contexts and media that cross the boundaries of time and space, from East and West/South and North.

Timothy Murray
Director, Society for the Humanities
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
Professor of Comparative Literature and English
A. D. White House
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853

The CFP for SIEF 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal is now open. My colleague Cyril Isnart, University of Evora and me are proposing the following panel, and invite paper submissions:
Date: 19 Apr, 2011
Sound, space and memory: ways of emotionalizing and instrumentalizing sound
Globalization and mobility have remodeled the relations between sound and space through emotionalization and instrumentalization. The panel aims to highlight the new connections between sound and space, taking into account the dynamics of detaching and repositioning sound and place today.

To view the long abstract and propose a paper, please go to: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2011/panels.php5?View=All Panels
Click on the panel title or on P205.
The deadline to propose papers for this panel is 15 October 2010.

Best regards,
Eckehard Pistrick

General Aims and Scope

The Murty Classical Library of India (MCLI) publishes dual-language editions of the major works of South Asian literature. For the purposes of this series, “South Asia” is comprised of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; the chronological endpoint of MCLI is approximately 1800 CE. The series is currently publishing only
belles lettres, broadly conceived, but will eventually expand into philosophy and other realms of learning.

The target audience is general readers, undergraduate and graduate students, and professional scholars both within and outside South Asian studies.

MCLI books provide original-language texts with accurate and readable English translations on facing pages. It is expected that the translations are new, and prepared in a register that is both idiomatic and enduring, given that MCLI books remain in print in perpetuity. For the same reason, prose rather than verse translation is typically
preferred, though non-metrical poetic translations may also be acceptable. Scholars may offer new critical editions, but are not required to do so. Reprinted texts should be the best available, revised by the contributor where necessary. Scholarly introductions will be included (5000-9000 words), as well as very sparse text-critical and explanatory footnotes, and exegetical endnotes.

Submitting Proposals

Prospective contributors propose volumes to the relevant Subseries Editor* via email to the editorial assistant at [series email here] in accordance with the following guidelines.

Editors and Translators
Most volumes are edited and translated by one scholar. If more than one person is collaborating on a volume, please describe the division of labor. As a rule the total compensation for a single volume with multiple contributors will not exceed the compensation for a volume with one author. Compensation for a multi-volume
work, whether from one or more authors, is determined by the General Editor.

Sample
Provide a representative fifteen-page sample of edited text and your English translation of the sample.

CV

Include a copy of your CV.

Size of the volume(s)
Calculate the approximate page count of your book (with 375 words per page).

Timetable
Provide as realistic as possible a schedule for completing and submitting your manuscript.

Cover letter
Please submit a cover letter indicating the following:

The Value of the Work
Briefly explain the historical, literary, and cultural importance of the work. Supply a list of all previous editions and translations, and indicate any that are still in print or under copyright. This is especially important for the text-
edition to be used in the MCLI volume.

In general MCLI prefers to publish complete works. If you are proposing selections, please list them and explain the need for selection and the rationale for your choices.

Text
Indicate whether the text is your own edition or a revision of an existing edition, and briefly discuss your editorial principles.

Previous Editions and Translations
Provide examples of the improvements you will be making upon existing editions and translations, where these exist.

Audience
Do you envision a particular audience for your book? Is it suitable for adoption as a text book?

*Subseries editors:

Monika Boehm-Tettelbach (North Indian languages)
Sunil Sharma (Persian and Urdu)
David Shulman (South Indian languages)
Sheldon Pollock (Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsa, and all remaining languages)

Following a highly successful 2010 conference in Oxford, the annual conference moves to the rural south-west of the UK for 2011. The conference will take place in the new Performance Centre in Cornwall, built by University College Falmouth in 2010. This area of the UK is noted for its coastal scenery and mild climate and is also the location of an under-represented Celtic community with its own language, traditions and culture but little functional autonomy (unlike Wales or Scotland). UCF is a specialist arts college with schools of Art & Design, Media & Performance. The conference theme is chosen to provide an opportunity for cross-disciplinary links between Ethnomusicology and Media, Writing, Theatre and Dance.

Topic:-
Theme: Mediation, Writing and Performance
Processes and critical analysis of the role of the ethnographer/ethnomusicologist as mediator, are an accepted part of academic practice and writing and of the creative practices of music and media-based outcomes. Although recordings have been used to make sonic and visual statements ever since they were technically possible, the majority of information about other people, places and music is now accessed via (the) media, particularly video/film. Whilst video may be used in many different ways, from a scholarly ethnographic study through the openly partisan/partial ‘edutainment’ to commercial pop video and advertising, it is increasingly social networking sites that provide a platform to display a vast range of video material to friends and strangers as people share images of their lives, including their musical choices and encounters. There are few places in the world where people do not have some access to video media and the internet and perceptions of lives in other places are most often accessed through brief home videos that might be the complete antithesis of the academic approach to the medium. Video as a medium also displays the theatre and movement/dance that makes these sounds or is linked to them.

* What is current thinking about mediation through film, writing (including auto-ethnography), film-making, composing?
* How is increased access to the media changing the lives of those we study?
* Are the changes to the way we access media and pay for it, significant culturally?
* How is access to the musical/cultural lives and choices of others changing what is created in different locations around the world?
* How much has the situation changed in the 15 years since an SEM meeting in 1995 came up with the ‘Ethno-Techno-person’ – fully plugged in (Lysloff & Gay: 2003:2)?
* Would we still agree with the statement, “Common sense tells us that technology, rather than being part of our lived experience, only mediates it.” (Lysoff & Gay 2003:3)?
* How has Auslander’s opinion that, “the general response of live performance to the oppression and economic superiority of mediatised forms has been to become as much like them as possible” been played out in music globally (Auslander 1999: 7)?
* What do we now feel about Myers’ observation that the use of recording equipment designed for ‘amateur enthusiasts to make home movies’ indicated falling standards linked to ‘pedestrian standards of writing’ (Myers 1992: 84)?
* Are there changes in our conception of mediation and our roles and responsibilities as researchers? How do notions of copyright and permissions play out in the digital age where there is a high expectation of ‘free’ downloads?

The questions posed above are not exhaustive and might be considered in many different locations and functions, for example, within academic study, pedagogic practices and structures, communities and relationships between them (including notions of charity/fundraising), rituals, recreation.

References:
Auslander, P (1999). Liveness: performance in a mediatized culture. New York, Routledge
Lysloff, René T. A. and Leslie C. Gay Jr (eds.) (2003). Music and Technoculture. Middletown, Wesleyan University Press.
Myers, Helen (ed.) (1992). Ethnomusicology: An Introduction. New York, W. W. Norton

Proposals are invited for:-

* Papers (20 mins + 5-10 mins for questions)
* Organised sessions (3 or 4 linked papers around a theme, 1½ or 2 hours)
* Round table discussion sessions (discussion topic, 3-4 shorter presentations not exceeding 15 mins each, chaired discussion, total 1½-2 hours)
* Poster/digital display material.

Proposals should follow the following format to enable them to be reviewed anonymously:-
Paper proposals: Name of proposer, email address, Paper title, Abstract – not exceeding 300 words. The name of the presenter should not appear in the abstract.
Organised Session proposals: Name of proposer, names of other contributors, email address of proposer and other participants, overall abstract for session, abstract for each contributor. Abstracts should not include the names of any of the contributors.
Roundtable proposals: Name of proposer – assumed to be the chair unless stated otherwise, names of other contributors, email address of proposer and other participants, overall abstract for roundtable, abstract for each contributor. Abstracts should not include the names of any of the contributors.
Poster/Digital display: We hope to be able to support a number of digital displays of work in the same area as the book displays/refreshments, enabling work in progress to be shared using video/image as well as other media. A brief description of the material and technical requirements should be submitted for this.

Proposals should be submitted by email to trevor.wiggins(at)falmouth.ac.uk by
15th October 2010.

The BFE is making up to 8 bursaries available to students. These will be to the value of £105 each and cover the conference fee and all food and refreshment during the conference, leaving the student responsible only for their accommodation and travel arrangements. Please indicate on your proposal if you wish to be considered for a bursary, where you are registered as a student, and any particular circumstances you think are relevant to your application. Students awarded a bursary will be expected to be present for the whole conference.

You will be notified if your proposal has been accepted by 15th November 2010. Please note that all presenters must be members of the BFE. Because this area of Cornwall is popular for holidays, it is recommended that you make a booking for your accommodation as early as possible.

Accommodation for this conference will be from a list of B&B and hotels in Falmouth listed on the conference website (link from the BFE homepage at www.bfe.org.uk/conferences.html).

On Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 April 2011, the Musicology Departments of Utrecht University, and Royal Holloway, University of London, will jointly host a conference at Utrecht University addressing Œthe West¹ in music(ologic)al production and consumption.

The destabilisation of Œthe West¹ as a self-perceived entity has marked the last decade at nearly every front ­ economically, politically, and culturally. Meanwhile, questions about Œthe West¹ as a category for construction and political deployment have significantly broadened research agendas in the humanities, unravelling the ways in which various artistic, literary, scholarly and popular media have been complicit in the cultural politics that have shaped, and continue to shape, the global infrastructure we experience today.

In music scholarship, too, the conceptual and geographical centre of ŒWestern music¹ has become unsettled, as has its prerogative over moral and aesthetic value. If ŒWestern music¹ ever did refer to a self-explanatory category of aural experience, it is no longer an unchallenged phenomenon against which Œothers¹ can be perceived separately. Yet Œthe West¹ still figures in many day-to-day representations of music. It also inheres structurally in today¹s fields of music research, as institutes, disciplinary societies and journals generally continue to reflect major
divides in terms of methodology (anthropological/historical), repertoire (art/folk/popular), and music practice (written/oral).

This conference seeks to address this situation by probing beyond it methodologically. Postcolonial analysis in the classic sense ­ i.e., exposing imperialist agendas in the West¹s representations of its Œothers¹ ­has been criticised for being limited by the way it perpetuates the West/non-West dualism, and for being more concerned with reproving Œthe West¹ than with other strategies. If this critique is appropriate, what would be an alternative way of analysing the power politics that inform musico-cultural production?

Questions that might inspire, but by no means are intended to limit, the discussion are:

· In which ways did/do music(ologic)al discourses and practices reflect, if not shape, the formation of the idea of Œthe West¹ as a political and/or cultural integrity? What, by whom, under which circumstances, and to which purposes, was/is claimed to be ŒWestern music(ology)¹?

· How have the ideologies and practices pertaining to ŒWestern music(ology)¹ been transmitted across the globe? How did they interact with existing music(ologic)al practices? Which aspects were rejected, adopted, transferred, translated and institutionalised? What was viewed from a non-Western perspective as associated with Œthe West¹?

· How have conceptions of ŒWestern music¹ changed as contexts have shifted between, for instance, competing nation-states, the Cold War polarity, and current challenges to the neoliberal economic paradigm from the rapidly evolving economies of China, India, and the United Arab Emirates?

· How is Œthe West¹ located, mediated, and negotiated in record studios, film music, commercial tunes, radio broadcasting, at festivals, or on concert stages? How does it feature, for instance, in Œworld music¹, a site of musical production and consumption putatively distinct from the ŒWestern¹ mainstream?

· How does Œthe West¹ relate to present-day conflicts between cultural preservation and modernisation, as played out on and between, local, regional, national and global levels?

· How does Œthe West¹ appear in the music histories taught across the globe? Do these histories conflict or do they meet with a postcolonial consensus, if any such consensus exists?

Submission
Abstracts limited to 300 words should be sent before 1 October 2010 to Harm Langenkamp, Utrecht University (h.j.m.langenkamp (at) uu.nl). Please attach your proposal as a Œdoc¹ or Œpdf¹ file without mentioning your name or
affiliation, providing full contact details in an accompanying e-mail only.
As we are looking specifically for contributions that tackle methodology, applicants should make clear what contribution their paper will make in this regard. Submissions from applicants affiliated to institutes that do not
reimburse their expenses for conference participation are welcome. Although guarantees cannot be given before January, efforts will be made to acquire a limited number of travel grants. Please also note the possibility of combining research visits, as the conference is scheduled to follow the annual meeting of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (7 to 10 April 2011).

Procedure
Applicants will be informed of acceptance by 15 November 2010 at the latest. In order to maximise discussion we have chosen the seminar model: selected speakers will be asked to distribute their papers two weeks in advance of
the conference, and then present 15-minute summaries at their session. After each presentation, there will be 15 minutes for discussion, and each day will be closed with a round table discussion which offers the opportunity to
engage more deeply in the issues raised. The publication of (a selection of) the papers in a collected volume will be considered.

Organising Committee
Rachel Beckles Willson, Harm Langenkamp, Barbara Titus.

Programme Committee
Christopher Ballantine (University of KwaZulu-Natal); Rachel Beckles Willson (Royal Holloway, University of London); Karl Kügle (Utrecht University); Joseph Lam (University of Michigan); Laudan Nooshin (City University London); Tina K. Ramnarine (Royal Holloway, University of London); Barbara Titus (Utrecht University).

Résumé

La classification américaine DSM-IV propose depuis 1994 d’étudier le « trouble dissociatif de type transe » (TDT) – qui a en fait deux sous-types : « transe » et « possession » - afin d’évaluer la nécessité de l’inclure officiellement ou non dans une prochaine édition.

Le TDT reprend les signes habituellement rencontrés dans les formes traditionnelles ritualisées d’« états de conscience modifiée », mais sort du cadre de ce qui est collectivement admis et toléré par l’individu en provoquant souffrance et désinsertion. Ce trouble, à forte résonnance culturelle, toucherait non seulement les sociétés dites traditionnelles, mais également des individus issus des minorités au sein des sociétés dites industrialisées. Alors que les possessions diaboliques semblent s’être éteintes avec l’émergence dans les deux derniers siècles de paradigmes plus scientifiques (les théories du magnétisme et l’hypnose médicale, les modèles du fonctionnement psychique, la psychanalyse…), dans nos sociétés le TDT concernerait aujourd’hui principalement des individus migrants.

Nous posons en introduction de notre travail quelques questions :

• Il s’agit d’abord d’évaluer l’intérêt d’intégrer dans la classification psychiatrique américaine un nouveau diagnostic. Rappelons qu’il n’en est encore qu’au stade de proposition, et ne figure à ce titre qu’en annexe et non pas dans le corps de la classification. Si le manuel a l’ambition d’être mondialement applicable, indépendamment des cultures, la première étape nous semble être de savoir si aujourd’hui, dans les pays occidentaux et en particulier en France, le TDT correspond bien à une réalité clinique.
• Le cas échéant, touche-t-il préférentiellement certaines populations ou certains individus ? Existe-t-il une personnalité type pour le trouble ?
• Le TDT obéit-il à un mécanisme psychopathologique spécifique ? Une réponse affirmative à cette question présenterait l’avantage de plaider pour une plus grande validité du trouble. Elle donnerait d’autre part des éléments utiles à la prise en charge thérapeutique.
• Quels sont les particularités de la prise en charge de ces patients ? Cette question pose aussi celle de savoir si ces patients doivent bénéficier d’une orientation psychiatrique spécialisée.
• Quels traitements chimiothérapiques et psychothérapiques peut-on leur proposer ?

La réponse à ces questions passe d’abord par l’examen critique d’un certain nombre de conceptions liées à notre savoir médical « occidental ».

Nous examinons tout d’abord les théories implicites sur lesquelles reposent la classification DSM, qui a depuis les années 1980 amorcé un virage radical, en éliminant toute trace des conceptions psychodynamiques et psychanalytiques jusqu’alors bien représentées. Les critères diagnostiques reposent désormais sur l’existence d’un certain nombre de symptômes supposés objectifs car indépendants de l’observateur : on cherche ainsi à augmenter la « fiabilité » (comment obtenir des critères rendant possibles des diagnostics indépendants de ceux qui les posent ?) au détriment de la « validité » (les critères que l’on exige pour un trouble correspondent-ils à une réalité clinique pertinente ?).

Le meilleur exemple d’un tel changement est celui de l’hystérie en tant que concept et structure psychopathologique démantelée (car jugé trop subjectif) pour donner naissance à 5 ou 6 troubles ayant des critères symptomatiques précis, et présentés comme indépendants les uns des autres.

Simultanément le terme de « dissociation » apparaît et semble se substituer à celui d’hystérie. Les troubles dissociatifs sont : l’amnésie dissociative, la fugue dissociative, la dépersonnalisation, le trouble dissociatif de l’identité (ex- personnalité multiple), et … peut-être bientôt le « trouble dissociatif de type transe ».

La dissociation est définie par le DSM comme une « perte de l’intégration habituelle des fonctions de conscience, de mémoire, d’identité et de perception ». Le concept de dissociation est en fait issu des travaux de Pierre Janet, et fortement associé aux théories du traumatisme psychique. La dissociation est un concept qui bénéficie effectivement d’une grande popularité, en partie dûe à l’expansion de l’hypnose clinique depuis les années 1970, mais également aux phénomènes de « personnalité multiples » qui connaissent aux Etats-Unis une véritable inflation depuis sa reconnaissance officielle dans la classification psychiatrique américaine en 1980. Les phénomènes dissociatifs fascinent la communauté scientifique autant que le grand public par leur caractère spectaculaire et mystérieux. Nous critiquons toutefois ce concept, dans la mesure où il correspond non seulement à une multitude de phénomènes allant du normal au pathologique, et qu’il ne repose sur aucun substrat biologique ou psychopathologique suffisamment défini.

En proposant d’inclure le TDT dans sa nosographie, le DSM semble faire un pas vers une meilleure validité culturelle de sa classification. Alors que le DSM défendait l’idée d’une nosologie universellement applicable car libre de toute influence culturelle, des travaux de plus en plus nombreux ont permis de penser que les catégories diagnostiques que nous supposions valables à travers le monde sont en fait intimement liées à notre culture occidentale, avec ses modes de pensée, ses rapports au monde, au corps, à la maladie… Le concept de « syndrome lié à la culture » (SLC) connaît un certain succès depuis son apparition dans les années 70. Les positionnements sont nombreux. Certains prétendent que les SLC correspondent à quelques tableaux exotiques rares (il s’agit à peu de choses près de la position du DSM) ; d’autres arguent du fait que tout syndrome est d’une certaine manière lié à la culture, et donnent l’exemple dans notre société des troubles du comportement alimentaire, du trouble de la personnalité multiple (limité aux Etats-Unis), et même de la schizophrénie.

C’est grâce au concept de « modèles d’inconduite » ou « façons convenables d’être fou » (Linton, Devereux), qu’on commence à saisir les liens entre culture et psychiatrie. Les symptomes visibles, en tant que partie émergée de l’iceberg, s’adressent à une communauté (entourage familial, social…) et en particulier à ceux désignés comme les experts médicaux, dont la tâche est de faire correspondre le syndrome observé avec l’une des catégories nosographiques connues et partagées par la société. Sans cela on passe pour un autre type de déviant : marginal ou dangereux. Cette partie visible, toujours liée à la culture, correspondrait seulement à la mise en forme d’un conflit plus profond, de nature diverse, et toujours idiosyncrasique. C’est la partie immergée de l’iceberg.

Le TDT, en tant que phénomène explicitement calqué sur un modèle culturel bien établi (celui de la transe et de la possession), nous oblige d’emblée à admettre les ressorts culturels du trouble. En étudiant les travaux des anthropologues sur la transe et la possession « institutionnalisées », on comprend qu’il ne s’agit pas seulement de pratiques cathartiques, mais qu’elles peuvent remplir un nombre important de fonctions au sein d’un groupe culturel. Qu’en est-il au niveau individuel, a fortiori lorsqu’un individu transplanté se retrouve coupé de sa communauté, de sa famille, de ses affiliations culturelles ? Nous abordons là la question de l’acculturation et des difficultés qu’elle peut rencontrer.

Une méthode, pour être efficace devrait permettre d’articuler de façon complémentaire les niveaux culturel et individuel, anthropologique et psychiatrique. L’approche ethnopsychiatrique, ou psychiatrie transculturelle est basée sur ce complémentarisme méthodologique.

Une revue de la littérature internationnale relève un certain nombre de cas de TDT à travers le monde. Toutefois, les cas ne concernent que rarement des migrants, mais plutôt des individus vivant au sein d’une culture fortement marquée par des pratiques ritualisées de transe ou de possession (Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est, Afrique…).

Pour connaître davantage l’épidémiologie du trouble en France, nous sommes allés à la rencontre de thérapeutes exercés à la psychiatrie transculturelle dans le service de psychopathologie de l’Hôpital Avicenne. Nous les avons interviewés sur le trouble, ses symptômes, les facteurs individuels et environnementaux qui pourraient lui être associés, ainsi que leurs conceptions personnelles sur ces phénomènes de transe et possession « pathologiques ». Ils reconnaissent l’existence d’un tel trouble en France, pour l’avoir rencontré chez un certain nombre de leurs patients. Les informations qu’ils nous ont apportées nous portent à croire que le TDT relève d’une psychopathologie variée, trouvant ses racines à la fois dans le registre culturel, collectif, que dans l’histoire familiale, individuelle et migratoire du patient.

Nous décrivons ensuite un cas, celui de Mr C., patient suivi à la consultation de psychiatrie transculturelle du Pr Moro, en raison de la richesse de son histoire et des multiples niveaux de représentation auxquels il fait référence.

Nous avons rencontré personnellement ce patient et l’avons interrogé sur ses troubles, sur sa symptomatologie comme sur ses théories personnelles à distance de la phase symptomatiquement la plus floride.

Une discussion des différents problèmes abordés à travers ce travail nous a permis de formuler quelques réponses aux questions que nous posions en introduction :

Le TDT correspond bien en France à une réalité clinique. Il concerne dans notre pays exclusivement des individus migrants (d’Afrique et d’Asie du Sud d’après les données du service du Pr Moro). Il nous paraît donc utile de l’intégrer dans une édition future du manuel.

Toutefois, les éléments recueillis ne nous ont pas permis d’émettre l’hypothèse d’une personnalité type, ou d’un conflit psychique particulier prédisposant à l’éclosion du trouble. Le TDT viendrait révéler selon les cas une vaste palette de problématiques, souvent liées à la migration, aux questions de la transmission, à l’inscription dans sa lignée familiale et culturelle, au traumatisme psychique enfin, qui agrave probablement le tableau et complexifie la prise en charge.

Ces patients devraient pouvoir bénéficier, lorsque la prise en charge initiale ne semble pas suffisante, d’une consultation en psychiatrie transculturelle dont les modalités restent à définir. Cette prise en charge complémentaire n’exclue pas une prise en charge classique, ni des hospitalisations ponctuelles lors des mouvements dépressifs notamment. Le traitement chimiothérapique est symptomatique, et peut inclure des neuroleptiques ou des antipsychotiques dans la mesure où le diagnostic de schizophrénie est éliminé (les doses utilisées et les objectifs thérapeutiques n’étant pas les mêmes). L’abord psychothérapique consiste dans tous les cas à soutenir le patient dans sa quête de sens, tout en mobilisant son entourage, lorsqu’il est accessible. L’objectif thérapeutique ne devrait paradoxalement pas consister en la « disparition » des crises.

Au total, nous souhaitons l’inclusion du TDT dans le DSM pour un certain nombre de raisons que nous avons évoquées. Il est probable que ce trouble concerne de plus en plus d’individus migrants étant donné l’évolution des sociétés et l’accélération des flux migratoires. Son intégration dans le DSM est non seulement justifiée, mais elle peut sembler souhaitable dans la mesure où le TDT révèle, par déduction, les insuffisances et les biais d’une approche généralement incapable de décoder la composante culturelle des troubles qu’elle pose comme universels.

La restitution anthropologique en question.
Enjeux scientifiques, éthiques et artistiques des modalités actuelles d’écriture et d’échange.

Ces deux journées de colloque du laboratoire et du GDRI « Anthropologie et histoire des arts » proposent de réfléchir aux défis méthodologiques et créateurs de « l’écriture » de l’anthropologie dans la relation à double sens des chercheurs avec les différents publics concernés dont certains peuvent émerger du fait même de la nature de cette restitution. Les publics peuvent être constitués à différents niveaux (genre, âge, politique, rural, urbain, sociétés et protagonistes impliqués, “grand public”, artistes, écrivains ..). Les interrogations portent sur les conditions de production de données et d’interprétation opérées sur le terrain et sur la réorientation de la pratique anthropologique du chercheur impliqué par la restitution de ses recherches sous une forme élaborée (films, multimedia, blog, etc) , ou simplement en tant que documents rendus accessibles pour une interaction avec les populations dans le cours même de la recherche (événement ou entretiens filmés, photographies numérisées, carnets de terrain, notes de lecture, etc.).

La première journée sera consacrée aux formes expérimentales des réalisations qui peuvent être développées en réponse à une demande effective ou supposée émanant d’un public particulier (population sur le terrain, artistes plasticiens du numérique, etc) mais aussi comme proposition du chercheur qui élabore à son idée et sous différentes formes la restitution de ses données. Dans cette perspective, on interrogera l’impact des productions anthropologiques et des différentes formes de la valorisation des recherches : expositions temporaires et conceptions de musées, émissions de radio, cd de musique, productions audio-visuelles, produits multimedia, bandes dessinées, textes littéraires, sites internet….

La deuxième journée questionnera les échanges sur le terrain et l’engagement de l’anthropologue dans ces processus, qui comportent souvent des enjeux à la fois scientifiques, artistiques et politiques au regard de la société civile et des questions de citoyenneté. Nous discuterons également du problème des malentendus de la restitution et des dérives associées à la réutilisation des données anthropologiques par les médias, et divers groupes aux intérêts spécifiques (Ovni, New Age, musique, etc).

Bien cordialement

Barbara Glowczewski et Michèle Fiéloux”

b.glowczewski(at)college-de-france.fr
fieloux(at)ehess.fr