Armando Favazza (born 1941 in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
, New York City) is an
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...
n author and psychiatrist best known for his studies of
cultural psychiatry, deliberate self-harm, and religion. Favazza's ''
Bodies Under Siege
''Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry'' is a book written by psychiatrist Dr. Armando Favazza, and published in 1987.
''Bodies Under Siege'' is a psychiatric book on self-harm. The second edition (1996) was subtitled '' ...
:
Self-mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry'' (1987) was an early psychiatric book on this topic. His 2004 work, ''PsychoBible: Behavior, Religion, and the Holy Book'' presents objective data regarding commonly held misconceptions about the Bible as a whole as well as its major passages. In Kaplan and Sadock's ''Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry'' he has written the chapter on "Anthropology and Psychiatry" in the 3rd edition (1980), the 4th edition (1985) and the 8th edition (2005), as well as the chapter on "Spirituality and Psychiatry" in the 9th edition (2009). He has published two cover articles in the ''American Journal of Psychiatry'': "Foundations of Cultural Psychiatry"
35:293-303,1978and "Modern Christian Healing of Mental Illness"
39:728-735,1982 In 1979 he co-founded The Society for the Study of Culture and Psychiatry.
Biography
Armando Favazza was born in 1941. he grew up in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...
, New York City, and attended
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
.
He studied medicine at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...
and completed a psychiatry
residency program at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.
In the 1970s, he became editor of the ''Journal of Operational Psychiatry''.
He is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial p ...
at the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded ...
.
Fields of work
Cultural psychiatry
His cover article, "The Foundation of Cultural Psychiatry", in the ''
American Journal of Psychiatry
''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...
'' (1978) presented a framework for a new discipline merging cultural anthropology with clinical psychiatry. Cultural psychiatry is an approach that synthesizes the biological, psychological, and social forces that impinge upon behavior, and explains their interactions through a cultural lens to therapeutically benefit individuals or groups affected by death, disease, and disorganization. Upon the death of his former teacher,
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...
, he took her place as the author of the chapter on
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial p ...
and
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
in the third edition of ''The Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry'' (1980). He has written updated chapters for editions in 1985 and 2005. He was elected the American representative on the executive board of the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the
World Psychiatric Association for nine years. He is on the editorial board of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry Research Review.
Deliberate self-harm
His 1987 book, ''
Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry'', a psychiatric book on the topic of self-harm, according to
Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan is an American novelist and short-story writer. Egan's novel '' A Visit from the Goon Squad'' won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. As of February 28, 2018, she is the Presiden ...
in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', was "the first to comprehensively explore self-mutilation".
The second edition (1996), subtitled ''Self-Mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry'', has been called the "seminal book on NSSI" (nonsuicidal self-injury).
He describes deliberate self-injury as a morbid form of self-help, temporarily alleviating distressing symptoms, and, attempting to heal themselves, to attain some measure of spirituality, and to establish a sense of personal order. He helped to teach clinicians that self-injurious behavior totally differs from suicidal behavior. However, repetitive skin-cutters may develop a Deliberate Self-Harm syndrome which includes demoralization and a tendency to overdose. The “secret shame” website contains a supervised
Bodies Under Siege
''Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry'' is a book written by psychiatrist Dr. Armando Favazza, and published in 1987.
''Bodies Under Siege'' is a psychiatric book on self-harm. The second edition (1996) was subtitled '' ...
bulletin board that allows self-injurers to communicate with one another. Collaborators with Favazza on his publications in this area include Karen Conterio, Daphne Simeon, and Richard Rosenthal.
Religion
His book ''PsychoBible, PsychoBible: Behavior, Religion, and the Holy Book'' was published in 2004. After an overview of the Bible's contents as well as the process that leads to the Bible's creation, the book includes chapters on God, the devil, sin, women, alcohol, animals, the human body, spirituality, and healing. Favazza presents data on the Bible, on how Christians and Jews over the centuries have interpreted these data, and how psychiatry regards them. The book points to Biblical material that has been validated by scholars as well as material that requires faith.
Books
* ''Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury, and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry,'' Third edition (2011). , (pbk)
* ''
Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry'' (1987, 1996). , (pbk)
* ''PsychoBible: Behavior, Religion and the Holy Book'' (2004). , (pbk)
* ''Themes in Cultural Psychiatry: An Annotated Bibliography, 1975-1980'', with Ahmed D. Faheem (1982). (hardcover)
* ''Anthropological and Cross-Cultural Themes in Mental Health: An Annotated Bibliography, 1975-1980'', with Mary Oman (1977). (hardcover)
References
External links
Bodies Under Siege Community
{{DEFAULTSORT:Favazza, Armando
American psychiatrists
American male writers
1941 births
Living people
University of Missouri faculty
University of Michigan alumni
Columbia College (New York) alumni
University of Virginia alumni