Tolani Asuni

Tolani Asuni (January 6, 1924 – June 21, 2011) was a Nigerian medical doctor and psychiatrist. Asuni was one of the first indigenous psychiatrists in Nigeria and is credited with promoting or encouraging mental health in Africa. He was educated in Nigeria and the West but later returned to Nigeria for his professional life. Asuni became the foundation professor of psychiatry at University College Hospital Ibadan where he worked from 1957 to 1976 as the Medical Superintendent of Aro Medical Hospital. Asuni was a suicidologist and forensic psychiatrist. His 1975 textbook, Mental Health and Disease in Africa, was used for many years by undergraduates and graduate students of mental health.

Early life Tolani Asuni was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Suwe and T.M. Asuni, both business people in Nigeria.

Asuni also studied the effects of repatriation on mental health. From 1961 to 1964, Asuni studied 82 mentally ill students who had been repatriated to Nigeria. His findings reported that repatriation rarely helps mentally ill patients.

Theory Asuni was a transcultural psychiatrist who argued that non-Westerners suffer from the same types of mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, that Westerners do. Asuni rejected the notion of the "African mind" as different from the minds of those in the West. An example of this rejection is the study on Brain Fag Syndrome where some psychiatrists felt Nigerians were unique, but he did not. Where Lambo suggested the "traditional" Yoruba healers' work was equally effective, Asuni disagreed. He recognized the usefulness of the healer's art but looked for more than anecdotal reports for evidence of its efficacy. Asuni felt both could be used concurrently but saw challenges with putting into practice both Western and traditional techniques side-by-side. He strove to explain traditional healing in Western terms such as psychoanalytical and psychotherapeutic theories.

Works

Books

Book Chapter. "The drug abuse scene in Nigeria." In The International Challenge of Drug Abuse. Book Chapter. "University education of Criminology in Africa." In Eguzkilore. Modern Medicine and traditional medicine Book Chapter. "Psychiatry – Partner in the Administration of Justice." In Psychiatry by P. Pinchot, P. Berner, R. Wolf, K. Thau, eds. Colonial psychiatry and "the African mind."

Articles

Suicide in Western Nigeria The dilemma of traditional healing with special reference to Nigeria Drug abuse in Africa Mental health and disease in Africa: with special reference to Africa south of the Sahara, with C. R. Swift. Aro hospital in perspective Impact of research on designing strategies for preventing and treating dependence on drugs: The case for developing countries–especially African countries Nigeria: Report on the care, treatment, and rehabilitation of people with mental illness. Preliminary study of juvenile delinquency in western Nigeria Mental Health Promotion through Psychosocial Rehabilitation, with M. Gittelman, with J. Dubuis, V. Nagaswami, I.R.H. Falloon & L. Publico. Community Development and Public Health By-Product of Social Psychiatry in Nigeria. Therapeutic communities of the hospital and villages in Aro Hospital Complex in Nigeria Sociocultural and Economic Determinants of Rehabilitation The Nyctohemeral Rhythm of Plasma Cortisol in Mental Illness in Nigerians, with B. Kwaku Adadevoh. Socio-medical problems of religious converts Towards the Success of Intercultural Marriage: A Nigerian Example, with Judith Asuni. Treatment of depression. Social Network and Traditional Support Systems for Victims.

Reports

Socio-psychiatric problems of cannabis in Nigeria