Of Spirits and Madness: An American Psychiatrist in Africa (edició 2002)

Would work for Zimbabwe.

This medical memoir describes Linde's experiences as a visiting psychiatrist in Zimbabwe. In general it's affectionate, culturally sensitive, and informative. Linde describes the setting and the people well, and while I sometimes wonder about his ways of investigating and managing psychiatric presentations (as a psychologist, I get to play "spot the differential diagnosis" as I read), but then, I'm sure he'd say the same if I wrote a memoir about my own work. ( )

Linde is a psychiatrist whose wife is a pediatrician. It was her dream to work in Africa that brought him to the experience that is the subject of this memoir. Originally intending to spend his Africa years writing, Linde happened into a job as a staff psychiatrist in a government hospital for the mentally ill. Within the first few pages, I learn that treatment is often governed by budget, rather than by the welfare of the patient (not so unlike its contemporaries in the United States and other first-world societies, where the more effective drug with fewer side effects is often available but not within reach of the poor or those depending on HMOs for their healthcare). Linde's personal life is in the shadows here. His emphasis, and where the light shines, is on a rich African culture, where psychiatrists expect (and sometimes recommend) that their patients consult native healers. Linde is not the sort of psychiatrist with a couch in his office, and he is neither trained for, nor interested in talk therapy. His skill and training are with psychiatric drugs. As one of only ten or twelve psychiatrists in the country, Linde's expertise as an emergency-room psychiatrist fit the bill perfectly for his Zimbabwean post. Time was at a premium, and the competent and well-respected nurses ran the hospital, as well as filled in for absent doctors. Linde took advantage of his single year at the Harare Psychiatric Unit to learn about local African culture and African attitudes towards healing and spirituality. He displays considerable respect for the Africans with whom he worked, as well as those he treated. Linde is a good writer, and a fine writer-in-the-making. His parade of case histories, interspersed with information about drugs, psychiatry, and the practice of the "art of medicine" is never dull. ( )