Culture and psychiatry.

The painstaking and always tentative effort to discover the universal characteristics of the human species differs in motive and attitude according to the arrogant anxiety-abating need for each of us to impose our own cultural categories upon others. When stemming from Europe this is seen by some as a form of psychiatric imperialism, by others as the fallacy of universalism and the primary of culture. Evidence from Papua New Guinea and other groups elsewhere show quite clearly that the noetic domains of those groups with different languages are so organized that the notion of a universal consensual science cannot be sustained.

The power of mercy.

Throughout history heads of state have reserved for themselves the prerogative to exercise mercy and pardon not only for serious crimes but for lesser ones as well. The newly emerging state of Papua New Guinea is no exception. My experience as the psychiatrist member of the advisory committee on such executive clemency since its inception twelve years ago will be discussed.

Kung Fu for cargo.

Promoters of institutionalized fighting skills and chiliastic activities generally share common objectives in their search for devices to overcome adversaries by impressive means. Unique is the case of Kung Fu for cargo reported here in which the patient suffered a grandiose paranoia following head injury and whose goal was the acquisition of both material and spiritual cargo as manifested in the Melanesian cargo cult.