A Conversation with Clemmont E. Vontress: Thoughts on Integrating Traditional Healing and Western Psychology
Abstract
In this in-depth interview, Clemmont E. Vontress reflects on his forty years of reseach and wrirting on West African traditional healing and Western pscyhology. Specifically, he discusses the role of cutlure in healing, theories of counseling, research methodology, the similarities and differences between Western pscyhology and West African traditional healing, and the challenges of trying to integate these two approaches. He points out that thre are some simiarities between teh two paradigms, which can make dialogue and exchange possible, but that there are also meaningful differences between them, which can make integration difficult. Throughout his interview, he remains both optimistic and realistic about the challenges and possibilities that are facing the cross-cultural counselor and researcher. This interview concludes with a reflection of his time and place in history, and analyzes his many research contributions.
References
Adekson, M. O. (2003). The Yoruba traditional healers of Nigeria. New York, NY: Routledge.
Binswanger, L. (1975). Being-in-the-world: Selected papers of Ludwig Binswanger. (J. Needleman, Trans.). London, UK: Souvenir Press.
Bojuwoye, O. (2010). African cultural imperatives, and traditional healing. In R. Moodley and Walcott (Eds). Counseling across and beyond cultures: Exploring the work of Clemmont E. Vontress (pp. 182-199). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1965). The world and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history. New York, NY: International Publishers.
