Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology is a multidisciplinary field of study that examines the relations of ecology and cultural behaviors to health and disease and provides an integrative approach to understanding the multifactorial causal dynamics of well-being. Medical anthropology spans the concerns of such diverse fields as evolutionary medicine, medical ecology, cultural epidemiology, ethnomedicine, transcultural psychiatry, public health, critical medical anthropology, and transcultural nursing. I have written Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology, a textbook for classes in Medical Anthropology, Intercultural Relations, Cross-cultural Counseling, Community Medicine, Transcultural Nursing, Social Work, Cross-cultural Psychology and Public Health that provides an integrative approach to understanding the multifactorial causal dynamics of health, disease and healing.
I have explored how integration of cultural and biological knowledge of medicinal plants provides information of direct relevance to public health and community health practice. In “Frequently Used Medicinal Plants in Baja California Norte” (1986), I review evidence from biochemistry and pharmacology that shows the effectiveness of herbal medicines for local diseases. In “Ethnobotanical Treatments of Diabetes in Baja California Norte” (1989) I examine how ethnomedical treatment of diabetes provides a systemic approach that is a more comprehensive treatment than the single mechanism approach typical of biomedicine.
The cultural issues affecting mental health and culpability were examined in my work as an expert witness involving services for the defendants in several capital offense cases in the State of California where I provided testimony for foreign defendants regarding their state of mind and mitigating factors. This culminated in my article “Cultural Factors in Criminal Defense Proceedings” (1996) in which I detail the areas in which cultural and personal factors (i.e., mens rea, state of mind) can be considered in assessing culpability and guilt. My most famous work as an expert witness involved the case of the U.S. Department of Justice against the Santo Daime Church in federal court in Medford, Oregon in 2009, where we won the right for the church to use ayahuasca in the U.S as part of their religious ceremonies.
A major theme of my career has focused on shamanism, psychedelics and altered states of consciousness. This work too has had major applied dimensions, particularly in the use of these practices to the treatment of addiction. A number of my articles have examined how shamanism can play a role in contemporary health care in “Alternative and Traditional Medicine Approaches for Substance Abuse Programs: A Shamanic Approach” (2001) and “Complementary Therapy for Addiction: ‘Drumming Out Drugs’” (2003), as well as in “Spirituality and the Healing of Addictions” (2004) and “Shamanistic Harm Reduction Practices” (2009). A specific foci has involved the evidence for the effectiveness of psychedelics in the treatment of addictions, such as in “Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca” (2014, 2018). I have compiled articles integrating evidence from anthropological, social, clinical and laboratory sciences to show the weight of evidence in favor of medicinal applications of psychedelics in Psychedelic Medicine (2007) and Advances in Psychedelic Medicine (2019). I have summarized evidence for their best-practices use in “Shamanic Guidelines for Psychedelic Medicines” (2007).
Articles
- 2021
Anthropology, Shamanism and Hallucinogens. In C.S. Grob and J. Grigsby (eds.) Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens (pp. 46-67) NY: Guilford Press. Researchgate link. Publisher link. - 2019
Introduction: The Psychedelic Renaissance Continues. Advances in Psychedelic Medicine State of the Art Therapeutic Applications. Pp. 1-10. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO (with Ben Sessa). Researchgate link. - 2019
Vaccination with Kambo against Bad Influences: Processes of symbolic healing and ecotherapy. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 51(1): 28-48. (Hesselink, J. and Winkelman, M.). ResearchGate link. - 2018
Assessment of Alcohol and Tobacco Use Disorders Among Religious Users of Ayahuasca. Frontiers in Psychiatry |https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00136 (Barbosa, P., Tófoli. L., Bogenschutz, M., Hoy, R. Berro, L., Marinho, E. Areco, K. & Winkelman, M.). Researchgate link. - 2016
The Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca: Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization. Frontiers in Pharmacology. DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00035 (Frecska, E., Bokor, P. and Winkelman, M.) Researchgate link. - 2014
Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7, 101-116. Researchgate link. - 2014
Therapeutic Applications of Ayahuasca and Other Sacred Medicines In: The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca. B. Caiuby Labate and C. Cavnar (eds.),. Pp. 1-21. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Researchgate link. - 2013
A possibly sigma-1 receptor mediated role of dimethyltryptamine in tissue protection, regeneration, and immunity. Journal of Neural Transmission. Published online April 26, 2013 (Frecska,E., A. Szabo, M. Winkelman, L. Luna and D. McKenna.) ResearchGate link. - 2013
Shamanism and psychedelics: A biogenetic structuralist paradigm of ecopsychology. European Journal of Ecopsychology 4: 90-115. ResearchGate link. - 2013
Psychedelic Induced Transpersonal Experiences, Therapies, and Their Implications for Transpersonal Psychology. In The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology. Pp. 459-479. Edited by Harris Friedman and Glenn Hartelius. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. (Thomas B. Roberts and Michael Winkelman.). ResearchGate link. - 2009
Sacred medicines for harm reduction and substance abuse rehabilitation. In The Praeger International Collection on Addictions. Vol 3. Browne-Miller, A. (ed.) Praeger Perspectives: Westport, CT. vol 3, 377-401. ResearchGate link. - 2007
Therapeutic Bases of Psychedelic Medicines: Psychointegrative Effects. In: Psychedelic medicine: New evidence for hallucinogenic substances as treatments, volume 1. Pp. 1-19. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood Publishers. ResearchGate link. Publisher link - 2007
Shamanic Guidelines for Psychedelic Medicines. In: Psychedelic medicine: New evidence for hallucinogenic substances as treatments, volume 2. M. Winkelman and T. Roberts, eds. Pp. 143-167. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood Publishers. ResearchGate link. Publisher link. - 2007
Conclusions: Guidelines for implementing the use of psychedelic medicines. In: Psychedelic medicine: New evidence for hallucinogenic substances as treatments, volume 1. Michael Winkelman and Tom Roberts, eds. Pp. 271-298. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood Publishers. (with Tom Roberts). ResearchGate link. - 2005 Drug Tourism or Spiritual Healing? Ayahuasca Seekers in Amazonia J. Psychoactive Drugs 37(2):209-218. ResearchGate link.
- 2005
Introduction. Pilgrimages and Healing. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. (Jill Dubisch and Michael Winkelman, eds.) ResearchGate link. - 2004
Spirituality and the Healing of Addictions: A Shamanic Drumming Approach. In: Religion and Healing in America, Edited by Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 455-470. ResearchGate link. - 2003
Complementary Therapy for Addiction: “Drumming Out Drugs” American Journal of Public Health 93(4): 647-651. ResearchGate link - 2001a
Alternative and Traditional Medicine Approaches for Substance Abuse Programs: a Shamanic Perspective. International Journal of Drug Policy 12: 337-351. ResearchGate link. - 2001
Psychointegrators: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Therapeutic Effects of Hallucinogens. Complementary Health Practice Review 6(3): 219-237. ResearchGate link - 1996a
Psychointegrator Plants: Their Roles in Human Culture and Health. Introduction to: Sacred Plants, Consciousness and Healing Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives Yearbook of Cross-cultural Medicine and Psychotherapy Volume 6. Michael Winkelman and Walter Andritzky, eds. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 9-53. ResearchGate link - 1996b
Cultural Factors in Criminal Defense Proceedings. Human Organization. 55(2):154-159. ResearchGate link. - 1994
Culture Shock and Adaptation. Journal of Counseling and Development 73(2): 121-126. ResearchGate link. - 1989
Psychoactive properties of !Kung Bushman Medicine Plants In: Shamanism and Altered States of Consciousness. Special Issue Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 21(1):51-60 (with Marlene Dobkin de Rios) ResearchGate link - 1989
Ethnobotanical Treatments of Diabetes in Baja California Norte. Medical Anthropology Vol. 11:255-268. ResearchGate link. - 1986 Frequently Used Medicinal Plants in Baja California Norte. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 18(2):109-131. ResearchGate link.
Books
- 2019
Advances in Psychedelic Medicine State of the Art Therapeutic Applications. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO (with Ben Sessa). Researchgate link. - 2010
Shamanism: A biopsychosocial paradigm of consciousness and healing. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO (Second Edition). ResearchGate link. Publisher Link - 2008
Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology. San Francisco: Jossey Bass/Wiley Publishers. ResearchGate link. Publisher link. - 2007
Psychedelic Medicine: New Evidence for Hallucinogenic Substances as Treatments, 2 volumes. Westport: Praeger/Greenwood Publishers. (Winkelman, M. J., Roberts, T. B. [Eds.].) Publisher link - 2005
Cultural Awareness, Sensitivity and Competence. Eddie Bowers, Peosta Iowa. Republished on Amazon. ResearchGate link. Amazon link. - 2005
Pilgrimages and Healing. Tucson: University of Arizona Press (Jill Dubisch and Michael Winkelman, eds.) ResearchGate link. Amazon link. - 2004
Divination and Healing: Potent Vision. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. (Michael Winkelman and Philip Peek, eds.). ResearchGate link. - 1996
Sacred Plants, Consciousness and Healing Yearbook of Cross-cultural Medicine and Psychotherapy Berlin: Verlag. Michael Winkelman and Walter Andritzky, eds.
