Story of Bali, Indonesia

by addition of the cultural dimension: attention is given to each of the interrelated parameters of behavior and emotion. Clinical psychiatric methodology uses more than observed data because behavior is considered to have multiple determinants, including context and inner experiences of the individual. The authors tried to enter into this inner world of the person to learn what his behavior means in terms of his inner experience. They did not interpret or assume how the person felt in a situation or try to derive his feelings primarily from observations of his behavior, on the contrary, they asked 'the subject how he felt what he believed, and what the meaning of the experience or situation was for him. Questions were also asked to get the individual's ideas of the rules of the culture, the socially acceptable and unacceptable aspects, and how people reacted to them overtly and covertly.Bateson and Mead relied heavily on photographs to present data. However, photographs reveal only a split second of behavior and little of inter experience. Movies and videotapes show more but still are a limited portrayal of the meaning of behavior.

The authors' method included both systematic and anecdotal observations and interviews with persons in many areas of Bali, including Bayung Gede. Interviews with Balinese were conducted primarily by Suryani in the native language of the individual, either Balinese or Indonesian. The average length of an interview was approximately an hour and some individuals were interviewed repeatedly on separate occasions. Informed consent was obtained for interviews and the use of photographs 6f~ persons -identified in the book including Made Kaler, Bateson and Mead's closely associated secretary and translator. The authors made experimentally structured and naturalistic observations of mother-child interactions. the kinds that were key to Bateson and Mead's interpretations and conclusions. These observations were supplemented with videotapes of mothers and children in natural situations in Bayung Gede and other villages in the plains of Bali. Videotaped sequences in which it was clear that the camera was unobtrusive were viewed repeatedly for specific behaviors. More than 1,000 slides of Balinese culture taken by the authors over the past 10 years were studied for this purpose. The photographs for this book were taken by the authors.

The methodologies used varied according to the individual study. Most were field studies using observation and interviews. The authors' topic-oriented studies published elsewhere (e.g., on mental and physical health of the elderly, on acute psychosis, on culture-bound syndromes, and on palm wine drinking) included appropriate sampling procedures, semi-structured interview protocols, objective instruments, standardized criteria for diagnoses, and statistical analysis of data. These studies contributed to their data and knowledge of the culture and psychology of the people throughout the island.

The authors' field studies generally involved considerable time and travel. Suryani's study (1988) of 113 cases of acute psychosis required her to make five half-day visits to the home of each patient to talk with family members about the patient and the community. These visits were made to villages in all geographic districts of Bali over a one-year period. For the study of palm wine drinking (Suryani, Adnjana, and Jensen, 1990), Suryani made weekly visits of one to three days to a village in north Bali over a six-month period.

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