CULTMIND 2026 Summer School: Critical approaches to culture and the mind: Psychiatry, history and politics
Course content
This summer course introduces students to core insights from critical medical humanities - history, medical anthropology, literature, philosophy and artistic practice – and explores how they might shed new light on our understanding of some important developments and challenges in psychiatry and mental healthcare. It rests on the idea that cultural and social determinants of mental health are deeply intertwined with broader historical, political and social contexts, and cannot be understood separately from them or solely within clinical and health science frameworks. For that reason, the course provides participants with the most important tools to analyse critically the relationship between cultural, socio-political and historical contexts on the one hand and psychiatric ideas/practices on the other. The course aims to demonstrate that humanities and social science can play an exceptionally important role in discussions about crises and challenges in mental health, because they draw attention to alternative ways of thinking and solutions that have been unjustly marginalised. One of the main threads running through the course is the question of decolonisation, its meaning and possible implications in psychiatric contexts, and its relevance for understanding and addressing present-day issues in the field of cross-cultural mental health. The course brings forward the importance of nuanced engagement with historical perspective, decolonial approaches and cultural complexities in clinical contexts.
All students are welcome, particularly those with a clinical background who want to engage with the field of humanities.
Preliminary programme
24-28 August 2026
Day 1:
10-11:30am: Lecture: Critical histories of psychiatry and mental health: Cultural, social and political contexts of psychiatric concepts, practices and institutions
11:30-1pm Discussion
1-2 pm: Lunch
2-5pm Working with primary documents from the history of psychiatry, getting familiar with different traditions, sources and methodologies: Group work and plenary discussion
Day 2:
10-11:30am: Lecture: Politics of psychiatric diagnosis: Histories and theories of the psychiatric diagnosis, and their significance for both psychiatrists and service-users
11:30-1pm Discussion
1-2pm: Lunch
2-5pm: Film screening and discussion
Day 3:
10-11:30 Lecture: Creative methodologies and mental health: Engaging with the mind in literary and artistic contexts
11:30- 1 Guest lecture from CULTMIND’s artist in residence
1-2pm Lunch
2-5pm Visit to the Centre for Art and Mental Health, Mental Health Centre Amager: writing workshop and discussion with practitioners and service-users
Day 4:
10-11:30am: Lecture: Beyond culture? Engaging anthropological theoretical frameworks and methodologies in transcultural psychiatric practice
11:30-1pm Discussion
1-2pm: Lunch
2-5pm: Cases from transcultural psychiatric practice: Group work exercise with psychiatrists from the Competence Centre for Transcultural Psychiatry, Copenhagen, and Transcultural Centre Stockholm
Day 5:
10-11:30 Lecture: What is the use of decolonisation in the context of psychiatry?
11:30- 1pm Round table 1: Psychiatry, decolonisation and indigenous communities
1-2pm Lunch
2-4:30 Round table 2: What is the use of humanities in psychiatric education? Presentation and discussion of students’ papers
4:30-5pm Closing discussion
Summer school 2026.
Classroom Teaching, Lectures, Excursion
Reading list:
Abarca Brown, GA & Montenegro, C 2023, 'La (de)colonización va por dentro: Profesionales de salud mental en el trabajo con migrantes haitianos y agrupaciones de usuarios y exusuarios activistas de servicios de salud mental en Chile', Revista de Antropología Social, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 129-140
Abarca Brown, GA & Ortega, F 2024, 'A historical perspective on structural-based mental health approaches in Latin America: The Chilean and Brazilian cases', Critical Public Health, vol. 34, no. 1
Abarca Brown, GA 2024, 'Structuralizing culture: Multicultural neoliberalism, migration and mental health in Santiago, Chile', Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, vol. 48, pp. 526–546
Antic, A 2022, 'Decolonising madness: Transcultural Psychiatry, International Order, and the Birth of a Global Psyche in the Aftermath of WWII', Journal of Global History, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 20-41
Antic, A 2026, ‘Schizophrenia, “primitivism” and modernity: Birth of a global diagnosis, Social History of Medicine, January
Antic, A, Abarca Brown, GA, Moghnieh, L & Rajpal, S 2023, 'Toward a new relationship between history and global mental health', SSM - Mental Health, vol. 4.
Bains J. 2005, 'Race, culture and psychiatry: A history of transcultural psychiatry', Transcultural Psychiatry, 16:2, 139-154
Bonhomme, E & Moghnieh, L 2023, 'Medicine and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa: Transdisciplinary Approaches in Medical Humanities', Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, vol. 47, no. 1
Bhugra D, Ventriglio A. 2015, Social sciences and medical humanities: The new focus of psychiatry. BJPsych international, 12:4, pp. 79–80.
Case, A. and Deaton, A. 2020, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Princeton University Press
Hansen, H., Gutierrez, K. J., Garcia, S. 2023, ‘Rethinking Psychiatry: Solutions for a Sociogenic Crisis’, Daedalus, 152:4, pp. 75–91
Kirmayer L. 2006, 'Beyond the 'new cross-cultural psychiatry': cultural biology, discursive psychology and the ironies of globalization', Transcultural psychiatry, 2006, 43:1, 126-44
Kirmayer L. 2022, ‘Decolonizing Memory’, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 29:4, pp. 243-248
Kleinman, A., Benson, P. 2006, Anthropology in the clinic: the problem of cultural competency and how to fix it, PLoS medicine, 3:10, e294
McGrath, J. et al. 2023, Age of onset and cumulative risk of mental disorders: a cross-national analysis of population surveys from 29 countries, Lancet Psychiatry, 10:9, pp. 668-681
Metzl JM, Hansen H. 2014, Structural competency: theorizing a new medical engagement with stigma and inequality, Social Science and Medicine, 103, pp. 126-133.
Mills, C. and Fernando, S. 2014, 'Globalising mental health or pathologising the Global South? Mapping the ethics, theory and practice of global mental health', Disability and the Global South, 1:2, 188–202
Moghnieh, L 2023, 'The Broken Promise of Institutional Psychiatry: Sexuality, Women and Mental Illness in 1950s Lebanon', Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, vol. 47, pp. 87-98
Moghnieh, L 2022, 'Global Mental Health in South Lebanon: Psychoeducation, Translation, and Culture', Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 105-119
Munch-Jurisic, Ditte 2022, Perpetrator Disgust: The moral limits of gut feelings, Oxford University Press
Napier AD, Ancarno C, Butler B, Calabrese J, Chater A, Chatterjee H, et al. 2014, ‘Culture and health’, Lancet, 384, 1607–1639.
Oredsson, AF 2023, ‘Women 'out of order': inappropriate anger and gender bias in the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder’, Journal of Psychosocial Studies, 16:2
Rajpal S., 'The Mental Hygiene Movement; Birth of the Global Mental Health in India', Medical History, December 2025.
Viney W, Callard F, Woods A. 2015, Critical medical humanities: embracing entanglement, taking risks, Medical Humanities 41, pp. 2-7.
International fee paying students – application deadline 9 April https://www.service4mobility.com/europe/BewerbungServlet?identifier=KOBENHA01&kz_bew_pers=S&kz_bew_art=IN&aust_prog=STB&sprache=en
Betalende færdiguddannede/fagprofessionelle kursister fra Danmark – ansøgningsfrist 9. april (link på vej)
Meritstuderende fra andre danske universiteter – ansøgningsfrist 1.
juni
Ansøgning om optagelse som meritstuderende fra andet dansk
universitet
Meritstuderende fra andre KU uddannelser – ansøgningsfrist 1. juni Ansøgning om meritindskrivning som KU studerende
Uddannelsens egne studerende – ansøgningsfrist 1. juni via selvbetjeningen på KUnet.
Please enclose the following documents with your application
For students currently enrolled at a university
- Certified transcripts from home university in a Nordic language or English or translated into English. All credits must be in ECTS-points or must be converted from home credit system to ECTS-points with a reference/functional web-link to the official credit conversion
- A pre-approval letter of confirmation from your home university (forhåndsgodkendelse) stating that the summer course can be integrated into your studies and assuring that you will receive credits for the summer course at your home university
- Documentation of citizenship if other than Danish
For non-students (Open University application)
- Certified MA, BA or Professional BA diploma in a Nordic language or English or translated into English.
- Documentation of citizenship if other than Danish
- ECTS
- 5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Home assignment, 6-10 standard pages
- Aid
- All aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Exam period
-
Submission deadline: 1. October 2026.
Criteria for exam assessment
HENK13121E Self Studied Topic 2
Short courses / Summer school
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 35
- Preparation
- 102,5
- English
- 137,5
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- HEGRCMS26U
- ECTS
- 5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
Full Degree Master choicePart Time MasterPh.D.
- Placement
- Summer
- Price
-
Applicant status
5 ECTS courses /7,5 ECTS courses
Students enrolled at a Danish University
No tuition fee
Non-students from Denmark
Tuition fee is DKK 2,500 / DKK 3,750
Students and non-students from EU/EEA countries
Tuition fee is DKK 2,500 / DKK 3,750
Students from non-EU/EEA countries with a permanent Danish residence permit
Tuition fee is DKK 2,500 / DKK 3,750
Students from non-EU/EEA countries without a permanent Danish residence permit
Tuition fee is DKK 6,250 / DKK 9,375
- Schedulegroup
-
See link to schedule.
- Studyboard
- Study board of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
Contracting department
- Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
Course Coordinator
- Ana Antic (9-4a776a374a777d726c49717e7637747e376d74)
Er du BA- eller KA-studerende?
Kursusinformation for indskrevne studerende