TY - JOUR PY - 1990// TI - Using a socio-historical frame to analyse aboriginal self-destructive behaviour JO - Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry A1 - Hunter, E. SP - 191 EP - 198 VL - 24 IS - 2 N2 - The last two decades have seen rapid changes in many facets of Aboriginal society, including morbidity and mortality. The same period has witnessed a dramatic increase in writing about and by Aborigines and this has necessitated a re-examination of the national "history" to include the indigenous people of Australia. Medical workers in Aboriginal Australia should be alert to the historical forces determining patterns of ill-health. Psychiatry in particular must develop this perspective if it is to participate with Aborigines in addressing emergent patterns of behavioural distress including suicide, parasuicide, ludic behaviour and self-mutilation. This paper demonstrates the importance of the socio-historical frame in the examination of these behaviours from one discrete region in isolated Aboriginal Australia: the Kimberley.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0004-8674 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -