From Volksmoeder to Igqira: Towards an intellectual biography of Dr Vera B�hrmann (1910-1998)
| dc.contributor.advisor | Bank, Andrew | |
| dc.contributor.author | Landman, Andre Louis | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-07-02T13:40:05Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-03-26T06:48:39Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-07-02T13:40:05Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-03-26T06:48:39Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.description | Magister Artium - MA | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This biography of Dr Vera B�hrmann is an intersectional and interdisciplinary investigation of an unusual Afrikaner woman who occupied several unusual places in South African society. Through rigorous archival research and a wide reading of English and Afrikaans secondary sources, I examine the mythology that has grown up around Dr B�hrmann and expose contradictions and inaccuracies inherent within these myths. I adopt a chronological approach but focus on certain key motifs. I dwell on her family background in order to demonstrate the depths of the Afrikaner nationalist tradition to which she was heir. I uncover the impact that physical anthropology had on her during her initial medical training at Wits and UCT in the 1930s. I highlight the intensity of her commitment to, and leadership roles in, the Ossewa-Brandwag and Dietse Kinderfonds, both extremist right-wing Afrikaner nationalist organisations. Vera�s marital crises reveal something of her �human� side but are an important component of her story because she reinvented herself following her divorce in the early 1950s, furthering her medical qualifications as well as training as a Jungian analyst. I investigate the various fields in which she worked following her return to South Africa in late 1959 but focus on her cross-cultural psychiatry research with a Xhosa igqira in the 1970s and 1980s since much of the mythology that surrounds her is based on publications that flowed from that research. I engage critically with her published works and associated archival records and present evidence which shows that the view that she underwent a �Damascus Road� experience with respect to her racial politics is unfounded. The racial politics of her ancestors and the ideology of the radical right-wing Ossewa-Brandwag remained with her throughout her life, despite attempts (by Vera and others) to camouflage it. In addition, I show that her use of Jungian depth psychology as a framework for cross-cultural psychiatry research contributed to the reification of apartheid racial politics. This study draws attention to the many pioneering achievements of this remarkable woman but argues that a more nuanced approach to her legacy is needed in light of the evidence of her persistent racial prejudice. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10566/9693 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of the Western Cape | en_US |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Western Cape | en_US |
| dc.subject | Afrikaner nationalism | en_US |
| dc.subject | Psychology | en_US |
| dc.subject | Cape of Good Hope Centre for Jungian Studies | en_US |
| dc.subject | South Africa | en_US |
| dc.subject | Western Cape | en_US |
| dc.subject | Sir Laurens van der Post | en_US |
| dc.subject | South African War (1899-1902) | en_US |
| dc.subject | Cross-cultural psychiatry | en_US |
| dc.subject | Child psychiatry | en_US |
| dc.subject | Ossewa-Brandwag | en_US |
| dc.title | From Volksmoeder to Igqira: Towards an intellectual biography of Dr Vera B�hrmann (1910-1998) | en_US |