The Nature of the Native Mind: Contested Views of Dutch Colonial Psychiatrists in the former Dutch East Indies

Abstract

In the middle of December 1923, during the wet season in the former Dutch East Indies, members of the notorious pro-business and reactionary Politiek-Economischen Bond [PEB; Political-Economical Union], held a meeting in Surabaya. The Union advocated free competition, the maintenance of law and order by abrogating the political rights of Indonesians, and reducing spending on educational facilities open to them. The invited speaker of that meeting was not a politician but a psychiatrist, Dr Travaglino. He had spent 9 years in the Dutch East Indies as the medical superintendent of the mental hospital near Lawang, about 20 kilometres to the south. It might appear unusual that a psychiatrist would address a meeting of a political party representing plantation owners and the sugar syndicate, although it should be noted that, in his speech, he addressed the importance of a scientific understanding of the native mind to rule colonial society justly and effectively. In fact, psychiatrists in the Dutch East Indies regularly addressed meetings and published their ideas in popular magazines and newspapers. In the former Dutch East Indies, psychological discourse on the nature of the native mind was rather common-place.