CULTURE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

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CULTURE AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

• PSYC 338

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Culture and Psychopathology

• Whats normal and abnormal ?
• Expression of Abnormal Behavior
• Assessment and Diagnosis of Abnormal Behavior
• Explanations of Psychopathology
• Treatment

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Culture and Psychopathology

• Whats normal and abnormal ?

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Roots of inquiry into Culture and Psychopathology

• Kraepelin (1904) found, on his world tour
  promoting his system of diagnosis that some
  cultures may need further examination in
  diagnosis of their disorders (e.g. latah).

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• Culture permeates all aspects of
• Psychopathology
• Experience
• Expression
• Explanation
• Assessment
• Treatment

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Explanations of Psychopathology

• Biological
• Psychological
• Social
• Ecological
• Spiritual

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Case Studies
A Pakistani patient complains of pain and
weakness I have pains in my head, I have a
body ache I have lost all of my
strength Whats your diagnosis?
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Expression of Abnormal Behavior

• Symptoms of depression as an affective
  disorder
• Affect- depressed mood
• Behavior- withdrawn
• Cognitive- guilt, worthlessness
• Somatic complaints
• Is depression manifest the same way across
  cultures?

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Feelings of Guilt
Guilt-based societies I have done something
wrong, and even if it is never discovered and
nobody else but me knows about it, I am
distressed and disgusted with myself. Shame-base
d societies I have done something wrong in the
eyes of other people. People who matter to me are
disgusted with my behaviour, and therefore I am
distressed because I cannot face them.
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Whats normal? Mental illness in a Laotian
village

• Dangerous behavior
• Disruptive and dysfunctional activities
• Communication problems
• Delusions
• Inappropriate affect
• Somatic symptoms

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Culture Specific Idioms of Disease

• Nervios
• Ataque de nervios
• Rootwork
• Susto

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Culture Bound Syndromes

• Latah
• Amok
• Koro
• Anorexia nervosa

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Dissociative disorders
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Dissociative disorders
Kleinman writes trance and possession states
are ubiquitous in non-western societies and were
so in the West prior to the modern age ... Only
the modern secular west seems to have blocked
individuals access to these otherwise pan-human
dimensions of self (1988, p.50).
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Trance and possession

• Zar (East Africa)
• Spell (Southern US)
• Izizwe (Zulu, South Africa)
• Speaking in toungues (Fundamentalist
  Christain US)
• Kitsune possession (Japan)

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Trance and possession

• Kitsune possession (Japan)