Using a socio-historical frame to analyse aboriginal self-destructive behaviour.
The last two decades have seen rapid changes in many facets of Aboriginal society, including morbidity and mortality. The same period has witnessed a dramatic increase in writing about and by Aborigines and this has necessitated a re-examination of the national "history" to include the indigenous people of Australia. Medical workers in Aboriginal Australia should be alert to the historical forces determining patterns of ill-health. Psychiatry in particular must develop this perspective if it is to participate with Aborigines in addressing emergent patterns of behavioural distress including suicide, parasuicide, ludic behaviour and self-mutilation. This paper demonstrates the importance of the socio-historical frame in the examination of these behaviours from one discrete region in isolated Aboriginal Australia: the Kimberley.
Hunter
E
E
New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry.
D000328:Adult; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012922:Social Change; D012931:Social Environment; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014904:Western Australia