Tolani Asuni

Education

Asuni spent time beginning at age 18 working for the Department of the Treasury as an Audit Clerk (Third Class) and with the Department of Posts and Telegraphs he served as a Sub-inspector (Grade III). In hopes of studying medicine, he shifted to Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine, which he graduated from in 1952. When Asuni returned to Nigeria, a chance meeting with Adeoye Lambo in 1956 changed the course of his professional pursuits. He went back to school to study psychiatry in London at the Institute of Psychiatry (1957-1960).

Career

Throughout his career, Asuni was actively involved in the international psychological community by producing knowledge and sharing that knowledge worldwide. He helped improve global understanding about mental health in Africa. After returning to Nigeria, Asuni replaced Adeoye Lambo as medical superintendent at the University College Hospital Ibadan. During his time there, Asuni developed a teaching center for students at the college. He was known as a positive mentor to the psychiatric students. While in Ibadan from 1957 to 1976, he further developed Adeoye Lambo's community care system for mental health patients. During Asuni's tenure, the care center became a World Health Organization center. Following his time in Ibadan, Asuni then became the Director of the United Nations Social Defence Research Institute (1979–1984) in Rome where, among other things, he was involved with the research and prevention of illegal artifact trading and drug trafficking. He was Chief Examiner at the Faculty of Psychiatry at the West African College of Physicians and chairman of the Psychiatric Hospitals Management Board. His work on mental health included seeking to reduce the stigma surrounding suicide and the rehabilitation of the unhoused and mentally ill.

Research

Asuni focused his research interests on mental health, specifically suicide, drug use, and the cultural versus universal nature of mental health conditions. He studied suicide in Nigeria as compared to other parts of the world. In his work, Asuni sought to discover whether mental health conditions were driven by regional culture or if the conditions were universal across the globe. Asuni also studied the introduction, causes, and acceptance of cannabis 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. In the end, Asuni proved that Brain Fag Syndrome was found among people in many parts of the world.

Asuni embraced Western and traditional Nigerian healing practices but found Western techniques to be more effective. 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.