Dusan Kecmanovic – författare

Kecmanovic deals with the phenomenon of ethnonationalism, both as a broad, worldwide concern and as a key ingredient to the struggles in the former Yugoslavia. As in the former Yugoslavia, the rise of ethnonationalistic sentiments and attitudes coincided with the transition from a state-and party-run affair to a new, post-communist type of government and society. Drawing upon his personal experiences in Sarajevo, Kecmanovic provides a unique view of the conflict.In a style accessible to students and general readers, he traces the transformations of leading principles, value systems, behavioral patterns, and views of people in times of severe ethnic tensions. At times nearly novelistic, the book examines epidemic ethnonationalism and individual manifestations such as violence toward members of other groups, beliefs that ethnic differences are genetic, a need to aggrandize and even manufacture differences between communities.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ethnonationalism has left its indelible mark on Europe and every other continent. The latest events in the Balkans, in central and eastern Europe, and in the former Soviet Union unequivocally testify to the power and influence of ethnonationalism at the end of the second millennium. What forces make people so committed to their ethnonational groups that they are ready to ignore all other concerns, first and foremost the rights and interests of people of other ethnicities? What is the social psychological and anthropological underpinning of ethnonationalism? And finally; why and how do people adhere to nation­ alist attitudes and beliefs? These questions are virtually impossible to avoid for anyone who has directly felt the impact of ethnonationalism, but they also present them­ selves to anyone who has indirectly experienced the prejudices unleashed by ethnonationalist forces. This book attempts to answer all these questions by focusing on national feeling and the social psychological and anthropological founda­ tions that underly the sense of belonging that is essential to nationalism. No matter how qualitatively different nationalist attitudes and beliefs are from national sentiment, the latter has to be considered in any study of national­ ism.

The controversies and dilemmas in contemporary psychiatry are so numerous and serious that they, to a great extent, define psychiatry. Yet most psychiatrists pay little attention to the field's controversies, maintaining that talking about controversies tarnishes psychiatry's reputation and them along with it. Critics of psychiatry use these controversies and dilemmas, along with psychiatrists' unwillingness to discuss them, to undermine psychiatry. They question the existence of mental disorder and the purpose of psychiatric therapy. Kecmanovic undertakes a major effort of resolving with science, not ideology, such dilemmas.Although psychiatrists give no thought to the mind-body relationship, their attitude towards this relationship determines their approach to the mentally ill, their understanding of the origin and nature of the mental disorder, and the therapy they think has priority. Sometimes psychiatrists implicitly or explicitly cite a specific school of philosophy in order to find conceptual support for their particular practice. As a result psychiatrists do not speak the same language about the same issues. Kecmanovic suggests that there can be no dialogue without common language; opposing views cannot converge without dialogue.The behavior of the mentally ill is socially jarring. This is a major reason why the mentally ill are considered to be a menace. They threaten prevailing manners of communicating, expressing one's thoughts and feelings, and the existing meaning of symbols in a given environment. Deviance of a person with a mental disorder is specific; socially perceived as incomprehensible, irrational, and unpredictable. What is common to all reactions to the disruptive nature of a mental disorder is the desire to be protected from those with illness; in other words, to put them under control and supervision.

The controversies and dilemmas in contemporary psychiatry are so numerous and serious that they, to a great extent, define psychiatry. Yet most psychiatrists pay little attention to the field's controversies, maintaining that talking about controversies tarnishes psychiatry's reputation and them along with it. Critics of psychiatry use these controversies and dilemmas, along with psychiatrists' unwillingness to discuss them, to undermine psychiatry. They question the existence of mental disorder and the purpose of psychiatric therapy. Kecmanovic undertakes a major effort of resolving with science, not ideology, such dilemmas.Although psychiatrists give no thought to the mind-body relationship, their attitude towards this relationship determines their approach to the mentally ill, their understanding of the origin and nature of the mental disorder, and the therapy they think has priority. Sometimes psychiatrists implicitly or explicitly cite a specific school of philosophy in order to find conceptual support for their particular practice. As a result psychiatrists do not speak the same language about the same issues. Kecmanovic suggests that there can be no dialogue without common language; opposing views cannot converge without dialogue.The behavior of the mentally ill is socially jarring. This is a major reason why the mentally ill are considered to be a menace. They threaten prevailing manners of communicating, expressing one's thoughts and feelings, and the existing meaning of symbols in a given environment. Deviance of a person with a mental disorder is specific; socially perceived as incomprehensible, irrational, and unpredictable. What is common to all reactions to the disruptive nature of a mental disorder is the desire to be protected from those with illness; in other words, to put them under control and supervision.