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Against Over-Interpretation: the Understanding of Pain Amongst Turkish and Kurdish Speakers in London

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  • Jale Yazar

    (University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT)

  • Roland Littlewood

    (University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT)

Abstract

The understanding of experienced pain has recently moved from the biological to the metaphorical. Detailed interviews with twelve Turkish and Kurdish patients in London who had been unsuccessfully investigated medically for chronic pain showed that their understanding reflected local, typically humoural, conceptions of self and body. However there was little to suggest interpretation of the illness as a more specific and grounded idiom for social or political experience. It is suggested that the current vogue for 'interpretation' in medical anthropology and social psychiatry may occasionally be, as Umberto Eco puts it, 'over-interpretation'.

Suggested Citation

  • Jale Yazar & Roland Littlewood, 2001. "Against Over-Interpretation: the Understanding of Pain Amongst Turkish and Kurdish Speakers in London," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 47(2), pages 20-33, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:47:y:2001:i:2:p:20-33
    DOI: 10.1177/002076400104700202
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haluk Arkar & DoÄŸan Eker, 1994. "Effect of Psychiatric Labels On Attitudes Toward Mental Illness in a Turkish Sample," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 40(3), pages 205-213, September.
    2. Vrancken, Mariet A. E., 1989. "Schools of thought on pain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 435-444, January.
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