Medical anthropologist Carroll Dunham has resided in the Himalayas for the past 25 years and currently lives in Nepal with her six Tibetan foster children. She is the director of Sojourn Nepal, a school in Kathmandu that promotes self-growth through interaction with Tibetan and Nepalese culture. Carroll has authored four books and produced films for National Geographic, PBS, and the BBC.
In our interview with Carroll, she talks about how the Tibetans look beyond the individual who is suffering from an illness by taking into account their environment and culture. While getting her degree at Princeton she herself was having extreme mood swings which culminated in a suicide attempt. Carroll feels that moving to Nepal, a slower agrarian environment, and making friends with her mind through meditation prevented her from ending up medicated and institutionalized.
It was fascinating speaking with Carroll. As an anthropologist she has explored a similar question we asked ourselves when we began working on CRAZYWISE – “What do traditional cultures have to teach us about mental health care?”
