Thinking Too Much

Tracing Local Patterns of Emotional Distress After Mass Violence in Timor-Leste

Bibliographic Data

ID2174722
AuthorsK Sakti (0000-0002-7273-0331, Max Planck Society, corresponding author), Victoria Kumala Sakti
Year2013
Volume14
Issue5
Pages438-454
Publication date2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442213.2013.826733
OpenAlexW2024066355
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited24

This paper discusses enduring implications of social trauma analysed at the everyday level in Timor-Leste following the 1999 political violence. Drawing from ethnographic data collected in the district of Oecussi, this paper explores linkages between disruptions of mortuary rituals related to what have been termed ‘bad’ deaths, as a result of unresolved serious crimes, and their subjective ramifications. As alliances and exchange obligations are central in Timorese social and cosmological life, blockages in these paths may create a variety of negative emotional responses that require individual and communal strategies for coping. This paper argues for anthropological scrutiny on the issue of conflict-related mental health discussions in Timor-Leste that has been predominantly derived through psychological approaches. I shall further embed local idioms for distress, such as ‘thinking too much’, in the local worlds of the social actors while emphasising their individual and communal strategies in dealing with distress

Coping (psychology) · Criminology · Distress · Ethnography · Political science · Politics · Psychotherapist · Scrutiny · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Timor leste · Anthropology · Cambodian History and Society · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Peacebuilding and International Security · Psychology · Social Psychology