Overview

Anthropology and psychology share a long history of rivalry, collaboration, and mutual disregard. This volume reconsiders psychology as a field of anthropological enquiry. In doing so, it takes an ethnographic approach to psychology, examining psychotherapeutic practices and models of mental health at the heart of ‘psy’. Featuring ethnographic studies of psychological therapies, subjects, and professionals, the book also suggests what an anthropological voice can offer to improve psychological healthcare. At the cutting edge of ethnographic research, this book brings together studies from the Global North and Global South, showing how psychological realities shape our understandings of what it means to be human.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mikkel Kenni Bruun ,  Rebecca Hutten
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
ISBN:  

9781836951568

ISBN 10:   1836951566
Pages:   198
Publication Date:   01 October 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Illustrations Introduction: Thinking Ethnographically about Psychology Mikkel Kenni Bruun Chapter 1. Mixing Treatment Modalities: An Ethnography of Mental Healthcare Bricolage in Canada Dina Bork Chapter 2. Treating Patients ‘Who Don’t Speak’: The Challenge of Treating Children with Eating Disorders in a Residential Facility in Italy Giulia Sciolli Chapter 3. More Likely Psychological? Exploring Mental Troubles and Psychology in Ouagadougou Annigje van Dijk Chapter 4. When the Counsellors Give: Material Support and Therapeutic Agency in State-Based Psychological Counselling Services in Sri Lanka Nadia Augustyniak Chapter 5. In (the) Practice: Pioneering Psychotherapy in Uganda Julia Vorhölter Chapter 6. Throwing Out the Psyche: Scientific Persuasions in British Psychotherapy Mikkel Kenni Bruun Chapter 7. Encoding Wellness: On Cultures of Risk when Building Digital Mental Wellb-Being Apps Jennifer Cearns Afterword: An Anthropology of Psychology in the Twenty-First Century Keir Martin Index

Reviews

“This is an excellent book. It deals with a timely and important issue in a sensitive manner.” • Keir Martin, University of Oslo “This is a fascinating volume with an important agenda: to understand, ethnographically, the powerful hold that concepts and practices of ‘psychology’ have come to exert on our lives. Refreshing in its focus on non-biomedical psychologies and psychotherapies, and with case studies drawn from across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, it should be essential reading for all anthropologists of contemporary selfhood.” • Nicholas J. Long, London School of Economics and Political Science

“This is an excellent book. It deals with a timely and important issue in a sensitive manner.” • Keir Martin, University of Oslo

Author Information

Mikkel Kenni Bruun is an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Research Associate at King’s College London. He is the co-editor of Rhythm and Vigilance: Ethnographies of Surveillance and Time (Bristol University Press, 2025).

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