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The Society for Humanistic Anthropology has awarded the Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing for 2001 to Tanya M. Luhrmann for her work: Of Two Minds: The Growing Disorder in American Psychiatry (Picador Press). The society presented Luhrmann with a check for $500 and a certificate at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Two authors received honorable mention for their works during the awards ceremony: Roy Richard Grinker for In the Arms of Africa and Setha M. Low for On the Plaza. Winner Luhrmann opens her ethnography of the psychiatric profession with twin epigrams that illustrate the "two minds" in U.S. psychiatry today, the origins of which she indicates lies in Cartesian dualism. From these opening quotes, through her descriptions of diagnosis, training, and institutional culture, and ending with her insights about empathizing and moral responsibility, she carefully contrasts the psychodynamic and biomedical model of psychiatry. Using an abundance of metaphors, she thoughtfully describes the culture of two hospitals, one following the biomedical/pharmacological model, and the other, the psychodynamic model. She shows differences in human relations both among professionals and with the regard to patient care. Her conclusion about these institutions is that the ambiance, time of stay, and concern about interpersonal relations are strikingly lower in the hospital that serves mostly uneducated, unemployed, or unemployable patients. Long-term psychiatric care is reserved for wealthier high achievers, with their depressive and bipolar disorders. Luhrmann is evenhanded and thoroughly descriptive in her analysis of the two cultures and their contradictions. For example, she tells us of the gift given to patients from each model and the nature of empathy in each. The biomedical model’s gift is its ability to rescue someone from stigma, whereas that of the psychodynamic model is the compassion of realizing the unfortunate, unconscious ways that the patient has chose to handle distress. With the biomedical model we learn to empathize with someone who is victim of external circumstances; with the psychodynamic model we learn to "empathize with the unique life course of that person; his hopes, his losses, his mistakes, his frailties, his courage, and his strength." In describing a recent, rather abrupt decline in use of the psychodynamic approach, Luhrmann concludes with a passionate plea to reestablish an integrated approach of using both "minds" to effectively treat the mentally ill: "To say that mental illness is nothing but disease is like saying that an opera is nothing but musical notes. It impoverishes us." Honorable Mentions Grinker’s unique work is beautifully written in fluid, exotic prose. Though it is not traditional ethnography, this biography does provide a powerful lens for examining changes in anthropology and the dilemmas that are so much at the forefront of current work: Where and how should the anthropologist/writer enter the scene? How does fieldwork change us? What is the role of emotion and passion in coming to understand others? When, if ever, can cultural relativism be challenged? Who should be our intended audience? Is the nature of humanity sociobiological or cultural? What is the nature of power in relationships at both micro- and macrolevels? And what have been the consequences of the spread of modernity? According to Grinker, "Colin had discovered something in India that would be his gift to Africa and anthropology, a lasting faith in emotional, spiritual paths to truth." He sought truth, goodness, and beauty, finding such qualities in life among the pygmies. However, he came to conclude that the Ik had cast them aside, losing their humanness. In analyzing Turnbull’s professional writing as well as his personal life, Grinker, sees more than irony in the parallel between his attitudes concerning the dominant Bira villagers and Colin’s own unfolding relationship with his lover Joe. This holds true even in the sense that the dominant Turnbull would consider himself inferior. We anthropologists may consider Grinker’s book to be like Kenge’s molimo, performed following Colin’s death, ensuring "that Colin rested quietly in the spirit world, that his life and his death mattered." Low’s work on public spaces in Costa Rica masterfully blends a range of perspectives and writing styles, from personal vignettes of her own experience, literary narratives, and stories told by her informants to historical and theoretical treatments of place. She adds to these photographs, drawings, and maps to create a multidimensional rendering of the Latin American public places. Together, these allow her to produce a carefully wrought consideration of "how culture can be understood spatially and what spatialization tell us about culture." Listening to voices from the past and present, Low discerns social production and construction of public space to exhibit both constructivist and Marxist aspects, that is, those that are dialogical and those that are dialectical. This work shifts our gaze from small moments of daily plaza life drawn from her fieldwork to the broader historical sweep of both colonial and indigenous influences on the creative of the plaza. This site emerges as a historically "contested terrain of architectural representation." Low compares two different plazas, a contemporary one self-consciously created to reflect both North American and international culture and an older one that presents a more traditional social life. The contrasts between the two, as she shows, are evident not merely in their architectural designs but in who uses them and how they are frequented. Low’s book illuminates how traditional ethnography, combined with more unusual methods, such as archival research and the incorporation of historical material, can be woven together to offer a rich portrayal of the spatialization of culture. -Barry Michrina, Cheryl Mattingly, and Unni Wikan [Anthropology and Humanism 26(2): 111-112]
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