Using a Socio-Historical Frame to Analyse Aboriginal Self-Destructive Behavior

Medical workers in Aboriginal Australia should be alert to the historical forces determinng patterns of ill-health. Psychiatry in particular must develop this perspective if it is to participate with Aborigines in addressing emergent patters of behavioural distresss including suicide, parasuicide, ludic behavior & self-mutilation. This paper demonstrates the importance of the socio-historical frame in the examination of these behaviors from one discete region in the Kimberley. (34 refs).