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THE NEW GUINEA PROPHET IS THE CULTIST ALWAYS NORMAL?
Author(s) -
BurtonBradley B. G.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1970.tb77758.x
Subject(s) - new guinea , cult , phenomenon , value (mathematics) , psychology , psychoanalysis , criminology , psychiatry , sociology , epistemology , history , law , ethnology , political science , philosophy , computer science , machine learning
Psychiatric aspects of the cargo cult leader in Papua and New Guinea are described for the first time with nine illustrative cases. A rational explanation of the cargo phenomenon based on understandable striving does not exclude the coexistence of mental disorder In individual cult leaders. Not all are abnormal, but a wide range of illnesses is shown to exist in the present series. The view that psychotics are never leaders is shown to be incorrect, and the possible implications of this finding for the future are noted. The value of a psychiatric examination in the case of all cargo prophets is stressed.