BIO

I've been working as a researcher, teacher, and trainer in Sri Lanka (primarily in Sinhala communities) for over 20 years. That experience (as well as lots of time spent working in Sweden and Norway) has persuaded me that ALL psychologies (including "scientific" psychology) are always necessarily indigenous, in the sense that they are formulated in the terms and frames of reference of the cultures in which they are embedded. Saying that, of course, is a way to become persona non grata VERY quickly in an American psychology department. (I was told more than once that I should "get out" of my department because I studied "Sri Lankans, not people.")

My work here has concerned suicide/self-harm, culture-specific ways of managing disaster- and war-related suffering, gender and gender orders, ideas of self.
Click for information on Gender and Culture in Psychology: Theories and Practices:
www.cambridge.org/9781107649514