article de périodique

Psychiatry, Post-Apartheid Integration and the
Neglected Role of Language in South African
Institutional Contexts Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

Transcultural Psychiatry

Vol.36, n°1

Drennan, Gerard

18

1999

5-22

Xhosa (langue) Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

Psycholinguistique Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

Psychiatrie Voir tous les contenus avec cette valeur

ang

1363-4615

Afrique du Sud

This study examined the use of interpreters with patients who are speakers of African languages at a recently integrated psychiatric institution in post-apartheid South Africa. The research process itself reflected important aspects of the institutional dynamics around the issues of language and ethnicity. The impact of inadequate language resources on service provision was profound. Interpreters have a role in alleviating the difficulties described, but routine organizational strategies for managing speakers of African languages are powerful obstacles to change. Complex institutional and societal discourses to do with race, identity, community, alienation and the practice of public psychiatry constellate around the language issue. Without sufficient recognition of the centrality of language in service provision, integration and institutional transformation will be impeded.