HLTHAGE 2G03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: European Colonialism, Reductionism, Eugenics

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Health, Aging and Society
• Course: HLTHAGE 2G03
• Professor: Mat Savelli

Document Summary

Lecture 6 race, class, ethnicity & mental health. Race is not a real biological category. We use a few phenotypic traits to determine race (skin colour, hair) This has no meaning within the whole of the organism. Phenotypic traits can be seen across racial groups. Within racial groups, the amount of genetic variation is the same or even greater than across racial groups. No (cid:862)pure ra(cid:272)e(cid:863) or (cid:374)o (cid:862)pure people(cid:863) Psy-ences are constructed and presented as universal, but they are actually coming from a very limited perspective (western thinking) Ra(cid:272)e refle(cid:272)ts our so(cid:272)iet(cid:455)"s pri(cid:448)ilegi(cid:374)g of (cid:272)ertai(cid:374) (cid:374)otio(cid:374)s. Reductionism trying to find the smallest unit of analysis (looking at the cellular level: does(cid:374)"t look at the (cid:449)hile perso(cid:374) or so(cid:272)iet(cid:455) Mental health is seen as an individual variable (we each have it) We isolate mental health instead of looking at it holistically or socially.