MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION IN FIELDWORK: AUSTRALIAN STUDIES

The Australian situation offers special insights for cross-cultural psychiatric research. The two cultures that "crossed" in Australia were diametrically opposed in their characteristics. Suffering, which is considered to be the raison d'être of cross-cultural psychiatry, became pandemic among Aborigines, not only because the invading society was ruthlessly aggressive, but also because the invaded society did not have the social institutions and modal personality patterns enabling it to adapt to the introduced culture. It is suggested that no applied science makes more demands of more scientific disciplines than does cross-cultural psychiatry. Psychiatry itself is a multidisciplinary science. The amount of information needed by the cross-cultural extension of psychiatry is further expanded. Only a multidisciplinary approach can furnish the necessary level of information. An outline is given of multidisciplinary field work in Australia, indicating advantages and difficulties inherent in it. Attention is drawn to literature in which details of the results may be found. The Australian work leads to the conclusion that if the relief of suffering is the aim then greater involvement is needed in cross-cultural psychiatry from the culture that has been "crossed".