Understanding Depression and Suicide: An Africanized/Dance Movement Therapy Education Approach
Conference: ISA 22nd Annual International Conference (2025)
Presenter(s): Gladys Ijeoma Akunna
Abstract
A global health philosophy articulates that health is wealth. On a personal level, Mathman Gandhi further emphasized that health is real wealth, not pieces of gold or silver. A healthy people build a healthy progressive society, hence the Igbo Ndu nmiri , ndu azu philosophy which projects that health and well-being in an extended sense involve people and their environment. Also, the Igbo worldview and Indigenous culture advocate that life must be handled with courage and as much joy as mustered. This suggests that under no condition must any individual yield to suicide, whether from broken heartedness or depression (obi ojoo), or trauma (nsogbu). Both language imageries incorporate deep significant health connotations, reflecting that a disintegrated mind-body relationship results from prevailing negative psychological influence and social conditions. The word, Obi ojoo translates to a ‘bad heart or mind’ in English, while nsogbu goes beyond the idea of trauma to incorporate any ‘variable that mortifies the body. These variables must be tackled to achieve a healthy state of being for individuals and progressive communities. However, recent reports and events showcase world communities fraught with mental health issues with an undeniably high rate of suicide, with little understanding of the phenomenon and a highly delicate theme. In this psychotherapeutic resaerch with the descriptive, methodological methodology, I present my devised Africanized Dance/ Movement Therapy as a model of healthcare steeped in Igbo cultural resources as a valuable platform for handling mental illness and suicide from a deeper culturally based mental health education perspective.
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