Infusing a cultural and spiritual approach to the psychological treatment of mental illness in The Bahamas, could go down as one of Dr Timothy McCartney’s greatest contribution to his field.

“During earlier years, Christianity, spirituality, culture and psychology were not always friends. Back then, to mention the existence and influence of anything ‘spiritual’ or ‘cultural’ on behaviour would have been met with intellectual scorn,” said trained clinical psychologist Dr Valerie Knowles, who offered up her thoughts on the accomplishments of a man hailed as the ‘father’ of their profession.

“In an era when it was not very fashionable to do so, Dr. McCartney supported the need to revisit the Eurocentric, and North American assumptions about behaviour, that did not take into consideration the cultural and spiritual background and definitions of a people. We were classified as unwell when other people’s cultural criteria defined us as such.”

Dr McCartney succumbed to COVID-19 complications on Sunday, November 22. The clinical psychologist spent over a quarter of a century with the Ministry of Health, predominantly working with patients at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre.

His 1971 book, “Neuroses in the Sun” shed light on mental health issues in The Bahamas. Even now, it is a topic still plagued by stigma which can lead to discrimination especially in small island nations.

“Neuroses in the Sun was an academic exercise but when Dr McCartney produced his 1976 work ’Ten, Ten, The Bible Ten: Obeah in The Bahamas,’ I was in my first year of university education and training. This work was, in my opinion, his most direct tool for connecting or tackling head on the reality of spiritualism and spiritism in Bahamian culture and mental health,” said Dr Knowles.

“Identifying himself as a Christian, a professional psychologist, and an avid culturist, he showed that he could talk about obeah without prejudice to the client, he could talk about spirits and hauntings and still be ‘saved,’ he could listen to people explain their concerns, make the spiritual connections and still be a Christian mental health professional. In my mind, that was another aspect to his fame in the Caribbean and around the world.”

In addition to boldly drawing spirituality into the conversation, Dr McCartney also jumpstarted public discourse on ‘womanizing,’ ‘sweethearting,’ alcoholism and other “culturally supported behaviours” that negatively impacted the mental health of Bahamians at the time, according to Dr Knowles, an adolescent psychosexual and reproductive health researcher.

Long before there were textbooks available to connect those psychological, cultural, spiritual dots, Dr Timothy McCartney had integrated this holistic approach into his psychological interventions.

One of Dr Knowles’ most memorable experiences with Dr. McCartney was a co-intervention to have a mentally unwell mother hospitalized and her children temporarily placed in care while she received help.

The woman’s mental health had deteriorated to the point that she was violent, incoherent and threatening death to anyone entering her yard. She and her children had remained trapped in her house for weeks, afraid to come out because the woman feared someone had sprinkled grave dust around her house.

Dr. McCartney boldly challenged the lady to step outside. She, in turn, threatened to kill him and anybody trespassing onto her property. In her outrage at Dr. McCartney’s audacity to defy her, she rushed out of the house and found herself caught, eventually taken to hospital, and the children rescued.

“I crouched hidden behind the bush in the yard watching Dr. McCartney confronting the woman, not believing what I was seeing and hearing. I was thinking to myself, ‘This woman is psychotic, and this man is going to cause our death today,’” recalled Dr Knowles, who at the time was a newly minted psychologist, schooled in a quieter approach. She never forgot this first experience of watching the effectiveness of culturally integrated, psychological intervention.

In yester years, “serious psychology” considered only those things that could be quantified, measured and controlled.

“If persons seeking help talked about experiences involving spirits, revelations, dreams, feeling the presence of unseen powers and hearing voices, or went around rebuking the enemy, they could have easily fallen into the mentally challenged or behaviorally problematic category if the cultural, and religious context were not taken into consideration,” Dr Knowles explained.

“Now, psychologists can stand up on platforms around the world and advocate and insist on culturally relevant interventions. It is no longer theory but fact. Without shame we can discuss the psychology of culture and the culture of psychological healing.”

In death, Dr McCartney’s contributions to his profession is venerated, but Dr Knowles recalled times when he was not so popular.

“Many times, a trailblazer’s value is recognized in hindsight. In my mind, the case of Dr. McCartney was no different. He paid a price for challenging the ‘sacred’ status quo of his day,” she noted.

“At the time, there were those who thought mental health was only about psychotic people frothing at the mouth on street corners. He paid the price for pulling the cultural blanket off and exposing our social nakedness in targeted areas. He made some persons uncomfortable and he and his psychology at times were misunderstood.”

In 2018, Dr Knowles, an author and corrections psychologist, received the inaugural Tim McCartney Award for her contribution to psychology from the Bahamas Psychologists Association.

She recalled Dr McCartney as a man who loved The Bahamas and remained connected to local professionals long after he left the country.

“Few can doubt his love of his craft and his commitment to mentoring. His impact lives on not only in The Bahamas but also through those he mentored around the world.”