How different are mental disorders in different cultures?
How different are mental disorders in different cultures?
Published on October 31, 2012 by Peter G. Stromberg, Ph.D. in Sex, Drugs, and Boredom
One of the most important forces in contemporary psychiatry is the drive to understand mental illness on the model of non-infectious physical illness. That is, depression or anorexia are disorders similar to hypertension or arthritis; the former manifest themselves in the mind and the latter in the body, but otherwise all of these conditions are fundamentally similar.
During the second half of the twentieth century the rapid development of drugs that help to control mental disorders helped to strengthen the conviction that such illnesses are in essence no different than physical disorders. It is easy to understand the appeal of this view: Modern medicine has garnered enormous scientific prestige as it has progressively grasped the genesis and effective treatment of a wide range of illnesses. Who wouldn’t want to join this team?
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