The title isn’t a joke. Last night I was having dinner with Mum and Dad before they left for Peter’s funeral in Canada. We got talking about how my grandmother never forgave herself for sending her quiet son to another country to study, about how the pressure of being an already-withdrawn Chinese kid, alone in Australia during the White Australia Policy, might have contributed to Peter’s breakdown.
My father then disclosed something I’d always wondered about: he described how some of his fellow Chinese overseas students in Australia during the 1950s and 60s failed to cope with the pressure, and went mad. There was one guy who seemed otherwise completely “sane”, but who became convinced that he didn’t need to eat, and that he could produce energy within his body via nuclear fusion. He even went to the lengths of changing his degree to one in physics. The interesting thing is that Dad was fairly clear that race, culture and nation had something to do with this phenomenon — an angle he rarely takes.
Race, culture, nation and “madness”. Of course, then there’s an entire generation of migrant women in Australia whose personalities have been permanently altered by tranquilliser addiction. They would see doctors about depression, feelings of isolation and alienation, and would simply be given prescriptions for Valium — prescriptions that were never explained to them. Obviously, this kind of systematic, racialised psycho-medical malpractice isn’t something that we can relegate to a harsher past. I know one woman who suffered from an aching back from too much work at Kmart, and recently went to see a doctor about it. Feeling that she could confide in this doctor much like one could with a hairdresser, she also chatted about some of the pressures in her personal life. What did the doctor prescribe for her aching back? Prozac. No explanation, not for the ignorant migrant woman.
Some things make me very sad. Sad and angry.
I’m so sorry to hear this.
This stuff makes me furious and, as you say, is still ongoing. I was involved a few years ago with an org, Southall Black Sisters, that did a lot of advocating for Asian/African women with mental health services. Could tell you some horrific stories.
And this is present stuff. In the UK afro-carribbean men are 4x more likely to be diagnosed schizophrenic than the average. Asian women are 2x as likely to recieve a depression diagnosis.
Based on the UK psychiatric system, but I can’t recommend enough a thing called ‘Aliens and Alienists’ - Ethnic Minorities and Pyschiatry - Littled, R and Lipsedge, M.
An angry,passionate, well-researched, symstematic critique - well, tearing-apart, really, of the UK Pyschiatry system and it’s intituionalised racism.
Have bags of UK-baed, and could easily locate some Oz stats, if yr interested.
er, Littlewood, R.
take care and hugs hon.
It’s a battle we’re fighting here, but you’ve got allies where you might least expect ‘em.
PS. Am sooooo jealous re Cindy. I love her and want her babies. She’d fancy me, right?
Thanks luv, it means a lot. Australian stats would be great if you could get them.
Of course she’d fancy you. We all want her babies — I’d have a reverse hysterectomy to have her babies. (I say this now…)
Hiya - I’m a friend of Camel’s and saw the link from her blog. We were chatting about it the other day, and I mentioned an artist I’d seen at a show I was reviewing for work(http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/exhgfxen/ART19921.html) - Gregory Leong, who is Chinese Australian, second generation. More about him here: http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/boyswhosew/greg.html
Thanks for the link!