Madness, Mental Health and Buddhism: An Examination of Smyo nad (‘madness’) in the Tibetan Context.
Dr. Susannah Deane was awarded a British Academy three-year postdoctoral research fellowship in 2017 for her project, ‘Madness, mental health and Buddhism: an examination of smyo nad (‘madness’) in the Tibetan context’, within the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, and she is currently working on a monograph based on this research. The research encompasses ethnographic fieldwork conducted during 2018 and 2019 in the Tibetan region of Amdo within Qinghai province,
China, alongside an examination of Tibetan religious and medical texts. It explores how Tibetan Tantric and medical notions of mind and body interrelate in diverse and complex ways to explain causative explanations of ‘madness’ focused on spirit affliction, ‘incorrect’ Tantric practice, and ‘heart-wind’ illnesses, with treatment often focused on ritual intervention and the activities of religious – rather than medical – specialists.
Susannah completed her BA(Hons) in Psychology at the University of Wales, Bangor in 1999, before studying and working in the field of alternative health for several years. Returning to academic study, Susannah received her MA in Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol in 2008, before studying Modern Tibetan language at Tibet University in Lhasa in 2009-10, and commencing her PhD in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. A monograph based on this work, entitled Tibetan Medicine, Buddhism and Psychiatry: Mental Health and Healing in a Tibetan Exile Community, was published in 2018 with Carolina Academic Press.