Culture and Psyche: Psychological Approaches in Anthropology
This book originates from a lecture series given on Psychology and Anthropology at Goldsmiths College London in 2018. It offers an introduction to psychological anthropology, and will be useful both for undergraduates and postgraduates. While providing a critical overview of topics commonly included in psychological anthropological texts, such as psychoanalysis, culture and personality, child development, personality, emotion, the self, memory and cognition, this book also offers a chapter on Darwin, sociobiology and evolutionary psychology to emphasise that behaviour is not infinitely malleable, but, rather, culture impacts existent biological and psychological structures. As shown here, while culture impacts psychological processes, these processes are constrained by genetic, biological and evolutionary factors.
Professor Simon Dein is a consultant psychiatrist in Essex, UK, specializing in psychosis. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from University College London, and is an Honorary Professor at Queen Mary University of London and Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths College London. He has written widely on religion and health among Hasidic Jews, Evangelical Christians and Sunni Muslims in the UK. He is founding editor of the journal Mental Health, Religion and Culture, and Chair of the Spirituality section of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry. He is also a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Spirituality and Psychiatry SIG Executive Committee.
“Simon Dein has a distinguished record for discovering and clarifying the obscure. He has done it again in this book on psychological anthropology, bringing theories and research into fascinating focus. This is an interdisciplinary feast that everyone can enjoy.”
Kate Loewenthal
Emerita Professor, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
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