# Janaka Jayawickrama and Jerome Wright, "Under the Gaze of Global Mental Health: A Critical Reflection" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/janaka-jayawickrama-and-jerome-wright-under-the-gaze-of-global-mental-health-a-critical-reflection-palgrave-macmillan-2025 Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/janaka-jayawickrama-and-jerome-wright-under-the-gaze-of-global-mental-health-a-critical-reflection-palgrave-macmillan-2025.md Podcast: [New Books in Anthropology](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932) Published: 2026-09-06T08:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK9833637786.mp3 Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK9833637786.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/episodes/janaka-jayawickrama-and-jerome-wright-under-the-gaze-of-global-mental-health-a-critical-reflection-palgrave-macmillan-2025 Duration seconds: 3829 ## Resource What went wrong with global mental health? Under the Gaze of Global Mental Health: A Critical Reflection (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) critically examines how the globalisation of mental health through the dominant medical model has created barriers to understanding and responding to distress with reference to cases from Malawi and Sri Lanka. Its authors argue that mental health must be understood within the overall health of an individual, and individual health is located within the social, political, cultural, economic, and environmental context in which they live. Their analyses demonstrate that supplanting locally developed responses to distress with a Western medicalised model of mental health inhibits a meaningful engagement with individuals and communities in need of care. Further, they argue that this ‘supplanting’ is analogous with a colonial endeavour, and one which diverts attention from the real problems of development. Across contexts the book highlights the difficulties that mental health professionals face in facilitating individuals’ capacities within structurally damaging socio-economic environments and increasingly commercially orientated health systems.  Janaka Jayawickrama is Professor of Social Anthropology and Director at the Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing at Shanghai University. Jerome Wright is Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, University of York. Lucas Tse is Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/episodes/janaka-jayawickrama-and-jerome-wright-under-the-gaze-of-global-mental-health-a-critical-reflection-palgrave-macmillan-2025/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-anthropology-901932/janaka-jayawickrama-and-jerome-wright-under-the-gaze-of-global-mental-health-a-critical-reflection-palgrave-macmillan-2025.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.