Epstein, Benjamin R;
(2024)
Hearts that Count Disaster Mental Health Research and Practice after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
This thesis investigates mental health response following Japan's 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. The work is based on two years of fieldwork (2016 and 2018), and subsequent revisit (2019), in the hardest-hit regions of Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate. Research was conducted in 'kokoro no kea' (care for the heart) health centres, clinics, hospitals, and a molecular psychiatry research facility. The project intersects anthropological scholarship on disasters, mental health, and Japan. Assessments of survivors' mental health in Japan predominantly involve quantitative data, such as community surveys and questionnaires. This thesis uses anthropology to question how Japanese practitioners interpret their actions in relation to this evidence. Global mental health discourses surrounding disasters involve a network of actors and practices. The thesis investigates how practitioners mediate between their local practice and globally derived knowledge, relying on statistical models and comparable experiences from worldwide disasters. It scrutinises how psychological scales and measures, deployed in disaster-stricken communities, hinge on assumptions about the transferability of tools and resulting data to other disaster contexts. The thesis develops the concept of commensurability, exploring the compromises of transforming disaster experiences into quantifiable data. Tensions exist between transmuting subjective experiences into comparable data points and lived experience, which cannot be wholly represented. After analysing interviews with mental health practitioners, alongside archival material and participant observations, it is argued that practitioners navigate complex negotiations amidst these tensions. These findings bring into sharp focus the limitations of current disaster mental health approaches and underline the importance of rethinking methodologies for more nuanced understanding and care practices.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Hearts that Count Disaster Mental Health Research and Practice after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10190743 |
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