The Work of Disaster - by Aidan Seale-Feldman (Paperback)

About the Book

"A compelling portrait of post-disaster imaginaries of repair in Nepal. In a world of cascading disasters, what are the consequences of transient care? In 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and equally powerful aftershock struck the central region of Nepal. The disaster claimed over 9,000 lives and inspired a surge of humanitarian concern for the mental health of Nepali people. In The Work of Disaster, based on extensive fieldwork in the region, anthropologist Aidan Seale-Feldman examines what disaster generates, and the fraught relationship between crisis and care. Moving between NGO offices, mountain trails, therapeutic interventions, and affected villages, Seale-Feldman tells the story of an emergent "mental health crisis" and the forms of care that followed in the disaster's wake. She also analyzes how emergency services transform the places they seek to assist; the challenges of psychiatric support provided by international organizations; and the place of mental health counseling in a modern biopolitical reality. The Work of Disaster reveals the contiguous violence and gentleness of humanitarian encounters, engaging with broader debates about worldmaking and the ethics of care"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A compelling portrait of post-disaster imaginaries of repair in Nepal.

In a world marked by escalating disasters, the forms that care takes are increasingly fraught. In this powerful book, anthropologist Aidan Seale-Feldman focuses on Nepal, where in 2015 a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and equally powerful aftershock struck the country's central region. The disaster claimed more than nine thousand lives and inspired a surge of humanitarian concern for the mental health of Nepali people. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, The Work of Disaster examines the possibilities generated by disaster, as well as the vexed relationship between crisis and care.

Moving between NGO offices, mountain trails, therapeutic interventions, and affected villages, Seale-Feldman tells the story of an emergent "mental health crisis" and the forms of care that followed in the disaster's wake. She also analyzes the changes emergency services bring about in the places they seek to assist, the challenges of psychiatric support provided by international organizations, and the place of mental health counseling in a modern biopolitical reality. The Work of Disaster reveals the simultaneous violence and gentleness of humanitarian encounters, engaging along the way with broader debates about world making and the ethics of care.

Review Quotes

"The Work of Disaster offers a compelling, innovative inquiry into the ways that disasters generate forms of life, meaning, and relationality as much as they destroy them. In this timely book, Seale-Feldman draws from extensive, multi-sited ethnographic research in tracking the modalities of hardship, care, and repair - and the possibilities of an otherwise - that emerged in the wake of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal."-- "Robert Desjarlais, Sarah Lawrence College"

"A searing and exquisite ethnography of what an earthquake destroys as well as what it produces. A must-read for anyone interested in disaster relief, the rise of global mental health, and the unexpected consequences of our efforts to care for others."-- "Lisa Stevenson, McGill University"

"Maurice Blanchot once wrote that to think the disaster is no longer to have any future in which to think. It is in the intimate, never-certain space of aftermath--where rupture, repair, and complex forms of grieving and giving reside--that Seale-Feldman pours her thought. The Work of Disaster thinks aftermath in the most delicate terms."-- "Todd Meyers, McGill University"

"Both compelling and timely, The Work of Disaster speaks to growing bodies of scholarship in anthropology and allied fields on disaster and its aftermath. It also deftly addresses the prescient debates within the global mental health and humanitarianism fields. This is a nuanced ethnography, written with beauty and care."-- "Sienna Craig, Dartmouth College"

About the Author

Aidan Seale-Feldman is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame.