The rhetoric of women and children's rights in Indian psychiatry.

Marrow J. Source
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, California, USA. jmarrow@stanford.edu

Abstract
Despite heavy patient aseloads and limited resour es, psy hiatri professionals of !orth "ndian pu#li tea hing hospitals aspire to deliver psy hoso ial interventions along with pharma euti al or #iologi treatments. $owever, signifi ant o#sta les stand in the way of the su ess of these interventions. %his paper dis usses how the relative so ial and politi al status differen es #etween elite professionals and their non&elite patients and patients' families render pro#lemati many of the psy hoso ial interventions employed. Data were olle ted in the form of o#servations of pra titioner&patient&family attendant intera tions at the (utpatient Department, and interviews with patients, patients' family mem#ers, and psy hiatri professionals at the "npatient Department )**+&)**,. Analysis found that many of the professionals' ver#al interventions attempted to promote egalitarian styles of ommuni ation and relating among patients' family mem#ers. -sy hiatrists per eived mental health pro#lems as stemming from stru tural violen e inherent in the !orth "ndian institution of the family, whi h they des ri#ed as organi.ed hierar hi ally a ording to gender, age, and generation. (ne strategy evident in interventions deployed 'traditional' values, #eliefs, and ma/ims irreverently in an attempt to re&order or level hierar hi al differen es. Another strategy invo0ed the on ept of individual rights in an effort to empower wea0er family mem#ers and enlighten powerful mem#ers regarding the destru tive impa t of relational styles predi ated on ine1uality. Unfortunately, the professionals e/perien ed their psy hoso ial interventions as unsu essful. %he paper suggests that rigid intera tional norms a ross lass statuses, an emphasis on li#eral individual rights versus ommunity rights, and a harsh e/hortative style, ontri#uted to the sense that the interventions alienated non&elite patients and family attendants.