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Cultural Relativity in Neuropsychology

Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Assessment: Theory and Practice, by Victor Nell. 1999. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 289 pp., $39.95.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2002

Kjell Flekkøy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo and Department of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation, Ullevål Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Frank Larøi
Affiliation:
Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Liège, Belgium.

Abstract

Aristotle was right: Give me a fixed point, and I will move the earth. The “earth” in this case is the urban, semiliterate, nontestwise patient, in particular from South Africa, with symptoms of mild or moderate head trauma and in need of neuropsychological assessment. The “fixed point” does not exist in the form of test given being the same as test received conceptually with valid norms to go with it. How then can we move the earth? With justice done to psychometric requirements and most importantly, to the mental abilities of the patient, we can not. The neuropsychological tests normed on Western subjects within the Western cultural sphere, has put this patient to a disadvantage.

Type
Book Review
Copyright
© 2001 The International Neuropsychological Society

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