Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in Indonesia is a six-part series of ethnographic films on severe mental illness in Indonesia, based on material drawn from 12 years of person-centered research by writer/anthropologist Robert Lemelson. The series, which follows six individuals of different ages and backgrounds, explores the relationship between culture, mental illness, and first-person experience.
The films may be purchased individually, as a complete series, or in two sets organized by theme:
Volume 1: Psychotic Disorders
Shadows & Illuminations (35 min, 2010) explores how non-normative mental events and behavior can be understood or interpreted in multiple ways outside the confines of Western psychiatric diagnostics.
Memory of My Face (22 min, 2011) illustrates how the residues of colonialism and the pervasive influence of globalization affect the subjective experience of mental illness.
Ritual Burdens (25 min, 2011) questions how communal spiritual obligations may be folded into personal schemas of stress to trigger episodes of mental illness.
Volume 2: Neuropsychiatric Disorders
The Bird Dancer (40 min, 2010) focuses on the social stigma of neuropsychiatric disorder and the human suffering it entails.
Family Victim (38 min, 2010) examines bi-directional influences between an individual considered to have a disruptive or troublesome personality.
Kites and Monsters (22 min, 2011) follows a young Balinese from boyhood to manhood, discovering the influential and protective aspects of culture that may guide developmental neuropsychiatric processes.