Culture and psychism: the ethnopsychoanalysis of Georges Devereux

Abstract

This paper introduces the significant theoretical contribution of Georges Devereux (1908–85) on the relationship between culture and psychism, which he developed in his work at the interface of anthropology, psychoanalysis and quantum epistemology during the mid-twentieth century. Devereux was one of the key early contributors to the field of transcultural psychiatry; he was in touch with its most important exponents, although he remained critical of many of the popular trends developed in this field of research in the USA, where Devereux conducted most of his research between 1932 and 1963. As a part of his critique, he founded a new epistemology: ethnopsychoanalysis, which was largely based on the concept of complementarity and countertransference.