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Paper with Dr. Checho Dorji
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Dr. Joseph D. Calabrese
University College London
j.calabrese@ucl.ac.uk
Lecture at Harvard
Handbook Chapter
Hello and welcome to my home page. I'm Joe Calabrese.
I am currently Reader of Medical Anthropology and Tutor of the MSc in Medical Anthropology at University College London.
I lecture on Medical Anthropology, Psychological Anthropology, Cultural Psychology, Mental Health, Clinical Ethnography and the Anthropology of Ritual and Religion (more information here and here).
I am also a Registered Clinical Psychologist and a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
My research combines ethnographic and clinical psychological frames of reference to develop a culturally inclusive (though clinically informed) understanding of health and illness, especially in the areas of mental health, the use and abuse of psychoactive substances, and the connections between mental health systems and religious or ritual systems.
My training and research have been marked by a purposeful oscillation between anthropological and psychological disciplines, which I have found very useful in clarifying the nature and limitations of each, allowing a greater reflexivity in practice within each discipline. I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s interdisciplinary Committee on Human Development, where I studied health-related anthropology (including long-term fieldwork) and was trained in clinical psychology. My doctoral committee included Ray Fogelson, Bertram Cohler, George Stocking, Waud Kracke, and Terry Straus. I also worked with Gilbert Herdt, David Orlinsky, James Fernandez, Patrick Corrigan, and Richard Shweder.
My ethnographic fieldwork includes two years within the Navajo Nation, several months spent in Haiti, several years studying illness stigma and recovery efforts among persons with severe mental illness in Chicago, work on an ethnographic study of patient experiences at the Harvard teaching hospitals, and four summers spent as an ethnographic researcher and volunteer psychologist in Bhutan.
Before taking up my current position, I was the Cannon Research Fellow in Patient Experience and Health Policy at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. In this role, I studied the experiences of patients, carers and clinicians dealing with a variety of health issues and the ways in which data on these experiences can inform health policy and research.
From 2007 to 2009, I was a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. During this fellowship, I took part in the NIMH Training Program in Culture and Mental Health Services, directed by Byron Good, Mary-Jo Good and Arthur Kleinman.
Prior to this, I was a Clinical Fellow in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, where I worked with patients at the Behavioral Medicine Program of the Cambridge Hospital. During this clinical fellowship, I received advanced training in hypnosis, biofeedback, mind/body medicine, and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
I have published in the areas of medical anthropology, psychological anthropology, clinical psychology, cultural psychology, severe mental illness and diverse approaches to therapeutic intervention.
Selected publications:
Calabrese, Joseph D. 2013. A Different Medicine: Postcolonial Healing in the Native American Church. New York: Oxford University Press. [DESCRIPTION]
Calabrese, Joseph D. 2008. Clinical Paradigm Clashes: Ethnocentric and Political Barriers to Native American Efforts at Self-Healing. Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 36(3): 334-353. (also reprinted in Robert A. LeVine’s new book Psychological Anthropology: A Reader on Self in Culture).
Calabrese, Joseph D. 2011. "The Culture of Medicine" as Revealed in Patients' Perspectives on Psychiatric Treatment. In Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Sarah S. Willen, Seth Donal Hannah, Ken Vickery, and Lawrence Taeseng Park (Eds). Shattering Culture: American Medicine Responds to Cultural Diversity. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Calabrese, Joseph D. 2019. Understanding Traditional and Other Culture-Based Approaches to Mental Illness in Lower- and Middle-Income Contexts. In Laura Davidson (Ed.). The Routledge Handbook of International Development, Mental Health and Wellbeing. London: Routledge.
Calabrese, Joseph D. and Chencho Dorji. 2014. Traditional and Modern Understandings of Mental Illness in Bhutan: Preserving the Benefits of Each to Support Gross National Happiness. Journal of Bhutan Studies 30:1-29.
Calabrese, Joseph D. and Patrick W. Corrigan. 2005. Beyond Dementia Praecox: Findings from Long-Term Follow-up Studies of Schizophrenia. In R. Ralph and P. Corrigan (Eds.), Recovery in Mental Illness: Broadening Our Understanding of Wellness. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Napier, D.A., C. Arcano, B. Butler, J. Calabrese, et al. 2014. Culture and Health (The UCL Lancet Commission). The Lancet 384: 1607–39.
Corrigan, Patrick W., Joseph D. Calabrese, Sarah E. Diwan, Cornelius B. Keogh, Lorraine Keck & Carol Mussey. 2002. Some Recovery Processes in Mutual-Help Groups for Persons with Mental Illness I: Qualitative Analysis of Program Materials and Testimonies. Community Mental Health Journal 38(4):287-301.
Calabrese, Joseph D. 1994. Reflexivity and Transformation Symbolism in the Navajo Peyote Meeting. Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 22(4): 494-527.
Ziebland, Sue, Angela Coulter, Joseph D. Calabrese, and Louise Locock (eds). 2013. Understanding and Using Health Experiences: Improving Patient Care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Calabrese, Joseph D. 2007. The Therapeutic Use of Peyote in the Native American Church. In M. Winkelman and T. Roberts (Eds.), Psychedelic Medicine. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
Corrigan, Patrick W. and Joseph D. Calabrese. 2004. Strategies for Assessing and Diminishing Self-Stigma. In P. Corrigan (Ed.), On the Stigma of Mental Illness: Practical Strategies for Research and Social Change. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Corrigan, Patrick W. and Joseph D. Calabrese. 2003. Cognitive Therapy and Schizophrenia. In M. Reinecke & D. Clark (Eds.), Cognitive Therapy across the Lifespan: Evidence and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.