Project title: Herbal Psychiatric Medicine: Posthumanist Poetics, Colonization, and the Efficacy Question
Project description: The Western scientific biomedical system differentially treats the efficacy of herbal psychiatric medicine from Chinese and Indigenous American traditions, most often by commodifying Chinese medicine and denying Indigenous American medicine. How do historical posthumanist poetic accounts of herbal medicine, or the “mystical” attribution of psychological processes to herbs themselves within these traditions, initiate this differential treatment? How do colonial histories impact the translation of posthumanist medicine and interpretations of their efficacy into scientific frameworks? This question is important because the framing of efficacy standards by the biomedical system informs both modern psychological treatment paradigms and mindsets toward indigenous healing. I plan to investigate this question by conducting a comparative analysis of Chinese and Indigenous American accounts of herbal medicine alongside biomedical interpretations of them. I expect to discover a differential within-culture expression of medical efficacy that maps onto differential biomedical treatments of such accounts. I also anticipate finding a measurable effect of differential colonial histories on these biomedical concepts of efficacy. The implications of these findings would be the identification of a shortcoming in biomedical understandings of psychological treatment efficacy and a reframing of culturally differential efficacy models to create space for more diverse psychiatric practices.
Most important achievement: Still to come!
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: The College Scholar Program has allowed me to connect with a wide variety of faculty from across Cornell, synthesizing their ideas into a greater project and generating new insight into the connections between incredibly kindred yet diverse fields, spanning from psychology and anthropology to biology and comparative literature. Being able to study what I care about and connect with professionals who share my passion has entirely redefined my Cornell experience.