Comments on: Exporting American mental illness

By: Crazy Like Us | Brain and Head Health

Crazy Like Us | Brain and Head Health — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:55:40 +0000

[...] concepts of illness, but illnesses themselves, is a provocative one. Is it true? Commentators have pointed out that Watters’ explanation of the rise of anorexia in Hong Kong is rather simplistic. There [...]

By: Mental illness and missing stories | Nate Barksdale Writing + Design.

Mental illness and missing stories | Nate Barksdale Writing + Design. — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:44:17 +0000

[...] Alhough the standard psychiatric diagnostic manual relegates ‘culture-bound’ illnesses to an exotic appendix at the end of the book, Western conceptions of mental illness are themselves ‘culture-bound’—an observation close to my historian-of-science’s heart, and one well-explored in both Watters’ article and in this thoughtful commentary. [...]

By: Weird Weird West « Odd Lots

Weird Weird West « Odd Lots — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:34:10 +0000

[...] just me. No, in all seriousness though, the realization that culture influences psychology has been getting more attention lately, and that’s probably a good thing. It is the nature of a culture to perceive other cultures [...]

By: Retirement-Man

Retirement-Man — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:59:51 +0000

I will buy this book based on this review. I read a great book “Empire of Illusion” that covers many examples of mass illusion in American from sports, politics, and several more. I also know how America is trying to Westernize the rest of the World. This book seems to have a similar take but with the subject of mental health.

By: Mince pie dreams « The Hope Chest

Mince pie dreams « The Hope Chest — Mon, 31 May 2010 06:46:23 +0000

[...] might even have been strong enough to qualify as a culture bound syndrome like piblokto, amok , anorexia nervosa, koro, or [...]

By: Neuroarchaeology anyone? « time travelling

Neuroarchaeology anyone? « time travelling — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:07:03 +0000

[...] world. The effects of brain trauma are interpreted differently in a nonwestern contexts, just as mental illnesses are also culture-bound. Pain has also been known to induce trances and enhances spiritual connection in various cultures; [...]

By: Body Impolitic - Blog Archive - » Contagious Mental Health - Laurie Toby Edison: Photographer

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:14:07 +0000

[...] internet search away from the Watters article was an equally absorbing commentary by Greg Downey at Neuronthropology.net. Downey suggests that export of mental health can also be motivated [...]

By: Khanya

Khanya — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:29:37 +0000

Cultural imperialism and mental health…

Back in the early 1970s, when I was in Namibia, I received a letter from a bunch of psychotherapists in Chicago, saying that they were concerned about the mental health of people in Namibia. They offered to send teams of shrinks as kind of short-tem mi…

By: Steve Hayes

Steve Hayes — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:36:26 +0000

Thanks very much for this — I found a link to it in another blog, and found it very interesting. I’ve had direct experience of the American export of mental illness, in the form of a letter I received some years ago from a bunch of psychotherapists in Chicago, saying that they were concerned about the mental health of people in Namibia, where I was at the time, and offering to send teams of shrinks to Namibia. I replied to the effect that they would be about as effective as a team of Namibian witchdoctors would be if sent to help with the mental health needs of middle-class suburbanites in Illinois. In either case, they would need to bridge the cultural gap before they could be effective, and that could not be done in a few weeks.

By: jleeger

jleeger — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:18:13 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism_and_Schizophrenia