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The article presents the discussion on cognition arguably being one of the most consequential discourses of exceptionalism. Topics include having self-awareness as its only constitutive property and characterized by radical reflexivity, self-distancing, and a sense of inwardness; and associating a disability studies approach to the cultural representation of raced bodies and experiencing with a salutary process of epistemological diversification.

The scientific contributions of Western mental health professionals have been lauded and leveraged for global mental health responses to varying degrees of success. In recent years, the necessity of recognizing the inefficiencies of solely etic and Western-based psychological intervention has been reflected in certain decolonial scholars like Frantz Fanon gaining more recognition. Despite this urgent focus on decolonial psychology, there are still others whose work has historically and contemporarily not received a great deal of attention. There is no better example of such a scholar than Dr. Louis Mars, Haiti’s first psychiatrist. Mars made a lasting impact on the communities of Haiti by shifting the conversation around Haitian culture and the practice of how people living with a mental illness were treated. Further, he influenced the global practice of psychiatry by coining “ethnopsychiatry” and asserting that non-Western culture should be intimately considered, rather than stigmatized, in treating people around the world. Unfortunately, the significance of his contributions to ethnopsychiatry, ethnodrama, and the subsequent field of psychology has effectively been erased from the disciplinary canon. Indeed, the weight of Mars’ psychiatric and political work deserves focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which discusses the early biography of the Haitian Revolution leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines, with a particular focus on whether he was African or Creole. An overview of the sources and historical interpretations of the social conditions in Haiti around the time of the Haitian Revolution is provided. The African character of the Haitian Revolution is discussed.

Medical journals and other sources do not show evidence that cholera occurred in Haiti before 2010, despite the devastating effect of this disease in the Caribbean region in the 19th century. Cholera occurred in Cuba in 1833-1834; in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Nevis, Trinidad, the Bahamas, St. Vincent, Granada, Anguilla, St. John, Tortola, the Turks and Caicos, the Grenadines (Carriacou and Petite Martinique), and possibly Antigua in 1850-1856; and in Guadeloupe, Cuba, St. Thomas, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Martinique, and Marie Galante in 1865-1872. Conditions associated with slavery and colonial military control were absent in independent Haiti. Clustered populations, regular influx of new persons, and close quarters of barracks living contributed to spread of cholera in other Caribbean locations. We provide historical accounts of the presence and spread of cholera epidemics in Caribbean islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper connects a stylistic hallmark of Marx's work—a dramatic antipathy to imitation and copying—to his rejection of the epistemology of likeness or “harmony” in French romantic social Utopian thought. A space of the common without social mimesis—not just representation and imitation but competitive appropriation, likeness-based equality, social unity, cultivated resemblance, and so on—is in some ways paradoxical. But Marx upholds a vision of the common as collision, foreshadowing Althusser's notion of aleatory materialism, through a discourse of the atom. He moves from atheistic Epicurean models of abstract individuality and opposition to false universalism, to Hegelian ideas of the disaggregated atoms of political class activity, to a rejection of Buonarroti's ambition to harness self-seeking atoms in the collectivity, to a championing of real rather than ideal collisions. Acutely aware of social mirroring processes in the paradigm of the fetishism of the commodity, Marx puts the Lucretian “uproarious contest” and “hostile tension” of atoms at the core of the nonromantic sociality of the common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the anticolonial and postcolonial thought of Haitian revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines, like Malcolm X, whom Cornel West calls a prophet of Black rage, is part of a black Atlantic radical tradition. Dessaline's secretary Louis-Flix Boisrond Tonnerre has often been viewed as the author of some of Dessalines' documents, including the Haitian Declaration of Independence, but I argue that Dessalines' voice remains distinctive and that he and his secretaries should be viewed as authorial teams. Dessalines' vision is syncretic, incorporating African diasporan views of the spiritual world and nature into his decisively anticolonial political ideology. These texts challenge the anglophone identity of the black Atlantic, and invite reconsideration of the diverse beginnings of the postcolonial. La pense anticoloniale et postcoloniale de Jean-Jacques Dessalines, chef de la Rvolution hatienne et premier empereur d'Hati, est considre ici vis--vis de la tradition de l'Atlantique noir formule par Gilroy, et surtout par rapport Malcolm X en tant que prophte colrique de l'Atlantique noir. Malgr le statut d'auteur de la dclaration de l'indpendance hatienne souvent confr au secrtaire Boisrond Tonnerre, la pluralit des documents produits par Dessalines en conjonction avec plusieurs secrtaires laissent entendre une voix distincte. L'idologie anticoloniale de Dessalines incorpore de faon syncrtique des traces d'interprtations africaines du monde spirituel et de la nature. Ces proclamations et manifestes mettent en question l'identit anglophone de l'Atlantique noir et nous invitent interroger les diverses commencements du postcolonial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the overlap between a person and thing status in caste politics in Gustave Flaubert's "Un Coeur simple" and Jacques Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's "La Chaumière indienne." The two books employ the trope of "parroting" in their questioning of the difference between the peasant, the pariah and the nonhuman. According to the author, the "persons and things" phrase is often found in linguistic science. He also explains that the slave in "La Chaumière indienne" is a suitable paradox of simultaneous person and thing status.

In 1804, in New York, an anonymous "Colon de Saint-Domingue" published the first known collection of French-lexifier Creole poems, a series of seven amorous dialogues, primarily between slaves, called the "Idylles, ou essais de poesie creole." From the figure of the mimic man to the trope of a mimesis of aphasia, postcolonial schemas of literary voice thematize the impossibility of the slave's participation in print culture. But the existence of an early Creole poetic anthology necessitates reconsideration of the literary and historical record on the possible transversal production and circulation of "oraliture" among the different social layers of colonial society, leading to the publications, by "bekes," of materials of hybrid origins.

Discusses the gender politics of nature in the work of French poet Louise Ackermann. Her claim to fame; Her identification as monster; How monstrosity has been linked to the power of feminine imagination.

Medical journals and other sources do not show evidence that cholera occurred in Haiti before 2010, despite the devastating effect of this disease in the Caribbean region in the 19th century. Cholera occurred in Cuba in 1833-1834; in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Nevis, Trinidad, the Bahamas, St. Vincent, Granada, Anguilla, St. John, Tortola, the Turks and Caicos, the Grenadines (Carriacou and Petite Martinique), and possibly Antigua in 1850-1856; and in Guadeloupe, Cuba, St. Thomas, the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Martinique, and Marie Galante in 1865-1872. Conditions associated with slavery and colonial military control were absent in independent Haiti. Clustered populations, regular influx of new persons, and close quarters of barracks living contributed to spread of cholera in other Caribbean locations. We provide historical accounts of the presence and spread of cholera epidemics in Caribbean islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of the study were to 1) investigate how patients with epilepsy describe the subjective, conscious experience of having a seizure and 2) determine whether certain themes and descriptions correspond to specific types of epilepsy. We interviewed thirteen patients with electroencephalographically confirmed epilepsy about their subjective experience of having a seizure and used conversational analysis (CA) to analyze the language they used to describe this experience. Seven patients had focal to bilateral tonic–clonic seizures (FBTCS), 7 had focal impaired awareness seizures (FIAS), 1 had focal aware seizures (FAS), and one had generalized onset tonic–clonic (GTC) seizures. Three had multiple types of seizures. Focal seizure origin was frontal in 2 patients, right hemisphere in 1, parieto-occipital in 1, and temporal in 8. Focal to bilateral tonic–clonic and GTC seizures were most frequently associated with descriptions of a total loss of consciousness (n = 8), whereas FIAS were most frequently associated with a perceived loss of consciousness but able to describe some aspects of being unconscious (n = 5). Temporal seizures most frequently accompanied reports of memory loss/impairment (n = 4). Ten patients provided specific descriptions of the transition between the interictal and ictal state or auras. Descriptions consciousness and unconsciousness ranged significantly, resembling a continuum rather than corresponding to distinct levels. The subjective experience of consciousness for patients with epilepsy may differ by seizure type and origin. These may reflect different involvement of brain regions involved in producing consciousness and arousal. Conversational analysis and narrative approaches can significantly aid clinicians in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy. • We used conversational analysis to analyze how patients with epilepsy described the conscious experience of having a seizure. • Patients with different seizure types and origins described the seizure experience differently. • Associations between seizure descriptions and seizure types/origins may aid clinicians in epilepsy diagnosis and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]