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The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982

This archival study tracks the expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa from 1948 to 1982. Valkenberg Hospital patient files, official documents and professional publications are triangulated with interviews with clinicians. Previous findings that the diagnosis...

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Main Author: Laurenson, Helen
Other Authors: Swartz, Sally
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Laurenson, Helen
author2 Swartz, Sally
author_browse Laurenson, Helen
Swartz, Sally
author_facet Swartz, Sally
Laurenson, Helen
author_sort Laurenson, Helen
collection Thesis
description This archival study tracks the expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa from 1948 to 1982. Valkenberg Hospital patient files, official documents and professional publications are triangulated with interviews with clinicians. Previous findings that the diagnosis was applied primarily to white, and to a lesser extent coloured, patients in both the early and late 20th century are confirmed. The thesis argues that the expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders occurred in interactional fashion both from the top down (via the state and the psy-professions) and from the bottom up (in interactions between clinicians and patients). It was linked to the professionalization of the psy-professions articulating with the state's need to manage the dangerous individual in the context of fears about white degeneration.
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id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8263
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:49.949Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8263 The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982 Laurenson, Helen Swartz, Sally Clinical Psychology This archival study tracks the expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa from 1948 to 1982. Valkenberg Hospital patient files, official documents and professional publications are triangulated with interviews with clinicians. Previous findings that the diagnosis was applied primarily to white, and to a lesser extent coloured, patients in both the early and late 20th century are confirmed. The thesis argues that the expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders occurred in interactional fashion both from the top down (via the state and the psy-professions) and from the bottom up (in interactions between clinicians and patients). It was linked to the professionalization of the psy-professions articulating with the state's need to manage the dangerous individual in the context of fears about white degeneration. 2014-10-08T09:43:56Z 2014-10-08T09:43:56Z 2009 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8263 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Clinical Psychology
Laurenson, Helen
The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982
title_full The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982
title_fullStr The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982
title_full_unstemmed The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982
title_short The Expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in South Africa 1948-1982
title_sort expansion and elaboration of the category personality disorders in south africa 1948 1982
topic Clinical Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8263
work_keys_str_mv AT laurensonhelen theexpansionandelaborationofthecategorypersonalitydisordersinsouthafrica19481982
AT laurensonhelen expansionandelaborationofthecategorypersonalitydisordersinsouthafrica19481982