What is a “healthy” psychological response to long-term discrimination, oppression, social ostracism, and discriminatory violence, enacted not only by a state apparatus but also through the agency of local community members? How should notions of revenge and retribution be viewed in this context? And how does such a cultural environment affect a child's neurobiological and developmental changes?

These are some of the questions explored in the following case study of a central Javanese boy named Joko and his transition from childhood to early adulthood.

CASE STUDY

Joko was a patient of Dr. Mahar Agusno (MA), a Javanese psychiatrist with whom one of the authors, Robert Lemelson (RL), has been conducting ongoing research on neuropsychiatric disorders in Indonesia. Joko was referred to MA by the staff of the Catholic orphanage where his parents had placed him at age 12. The clinical interviews with Joko were initially conducted by MA, his wife Ninik Supartini (NS), and RL and were recorded on video. As the research progressed, RL, usually accompanied by NS (who also became Joko's counselor), conducted ethnographic person-centered interviews with Joko, his family, social workers, and the orphanage staff, as well as children from Joko's home village and other members of his community.