{"product_id":"african-pharmakon-nana-osei-quarshie-9780226839189","title":"African Pharmakon: The Asylum as Shrine from Slavery to the Return","description":"\u003cb\u003eExplores how psychiatry in Ghana was never just about medicine; it was about migration, exile, and the politics of who gets to stay and who must be cast out.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For centuries, mental distress in West Africa has been navigated through a mix of healing, harming, ritual, and regulation. In \u003ci\u003eAfrican Pharmakon\u003c\/i\u003e, Nana Osei Quarshie questions conventional narratives about colonial psychiatry. Instead of displacing African therapeutic traditions, he argues, European psychiatric institutions built upon them, adapting long-standing techniques of social control and healing. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e With a focus on Ghana, Quarshie explores the shifting landscape of West African mental health practices, outlining their transformation from shrine-based rituals to colonial asylums and modern psychiatric institutions. Through extensive archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, including the first scholarly examination of patient records from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Quarshie identifies five enduring techniques that have shaped the treatment of mental distress: spiritual pawning, logging, manhunting, mass expulsion, and pharmacotherapy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Rejecting the simplistic opposition of Indigenous healing versus colonial oppression, \u003ci\u003eAfrican Pharmakon \u003c\/i\u003eprovides a nuanced account of how psychiatric care in Ghana became a tool of empowerment as well as exclusion. This pioneering study reframes our understanding of psychiatry and mental health governance in West Africa, past and present. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Nana Osei Quarshie\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0226839184\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226839189\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/19\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Nana Osei Quarshie","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46927735390463,"sku":"9780226839189","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d78e1a29-10ef-42ad-9f20-79adecc2976b.jpg?v=1749372801","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/african-pharmakon-nana-osei-quarshie-9780226839189","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}