When Goddard (anthropology, Macquarie U., Australia) began research on mentally ill people in Papua New Guinea, he discovered that the little he had learned about Western psychiatry was of no help to him, and the doctoral dissertation that emerged from that research was so peculiar that he did not allow much access to it for 20 years. Here he brushes it off, tightens it up, and releases it to the world. His topics include psychiatric theory and practice in Papua new Guinea, madness and the ambivalent use of psychiatry in the Kaugel Valley, affliction and madness, and the social construction of madness. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)