Cultural variations in the response to psychiatric disorders and emotional distress

doi:10.1016/0277-9536(89)90281-5

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 29, Issue 3, 1989, Pages 327-339

https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(89)90281-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

Culture influences the experience and expression of distress from its inception. While Western psychiatry has identified several universal patterns of distress, there are significant geographical variations in the prevalence, symptomatology, course and outcome of psychiatric illness. Indirect evidence suggests that cultural differences in the recognition, labelling and interpretation of deviant behaviour affect the outcome of major psychiatric disorders as well as milder forms of distress. Emotion theory and the cultural concept of the person provide links between social and cognitive processes that contribute to the natural history of emotional distress. However, many current studies of ethnopsychology confound psychology (mechanisms of behaviour) and meta-psychology (theories of the self). Further advances in understanding the impact of culture on distress depend on the development of psychological and social theory that is neither ethnocentric nor naive about the wellsprings of action. Three arenas for further study are identified: (1) the handling of the gap between experience and expression; (2) the labelling of deviant behaviour and distress as voluntary or accidental; and, (3) the interpretation of symptoms as symbols or as meaningless events. Attention to these themes can guide re-thinking the assumptions of Western psychological and social theory.

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Section DCultural variations in the response to psychiatric disorders and emotional distress

Abstract

J. psychosom. Res.

Mental Disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD

Psychiatric epidemiology across cultures: current issues and trends

Transcult. Psychiat. Res. Rev.

Early manifestations and first-contact incidence of schizophrenia in different cultures

Psychol. Med.

Cross-cultural studies of depressive disorders: an overview

Anthropology and psychiatry

Br. J. Psychiat.

Depressive experience and disorder across cultures

The depressive experience in American Indian communities: a challenge for psychiatric theory and diagnosis

The International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia

Psychiatric disorders in two African villages

Archs gen. Psychiat.

Psychiatric labeling in cross-cultural perspective

Science

Cultural factors in clinical assessment

J. Consult. Clin. Psychol.

Mental health in Africa

Br. J. Psychiat.

Psychiatry Around the Globe: A Transcultural View

Is outcome for schizophrenia better in non-industrial societies?

J. nerv. ment. Dis.

Cultural factors considered in selected diagnostic criteria and interview schedules

J. abnorm. Psychol.

Comparative Psychiatry: The International and Intercultural Distribution of Mental Illness

Rethinking Psychiatry

Introduction: the fright illness taxon

Culture-bound syndromes and international disease classification

Cult. Med. Psychiat.

Somatization: the concept and its clinical application

Am. J. Psychiat.

Culture, affect and somatization

Transcult. Psychiat. Res. Rev.

Culture, affect and somatization

Transcult. Psychiat. Res. Rev.

Mental disorders in primary care: epidemiologic, diagnostic, and treatment research directions

Gen. Hosp. Psychiat.

Social relationships and health

Science

The concept of illness behavior

J. chron. Dis.

Overview: hypochondriasis, bodily complaints, and somatic styles

Am. J. Psychiat.

Somatization and the social construction of illness experience

Illness cognition, symptom reporting and somatization in family medicine

The impact of culture on the cognitive structure of illness

Cult. Med. Psychiat.

Languages of suffering and healing: alexithymia as a social and cultural process

Transcult. Psychiat. Res. Rev.

Alexithymia: concept, measurement and implications for treatment

Am. J. Psychiat.

The condition of “tightness”: the somatic complaints of Turkish migrant women

Acta psychiat. scand.

Social Origins of Distress and Disease

Dimensions of dysphoria: the view from linguistic anthropology

The anthropology of emotion

A. Rev. Anthrop.

Learning to talk about emotions: a functionalist perspective

Child Dev.

A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion

Motiv. Emot.

Expression and the nature of emotion

Emotion as a multicomponent process: a model and some cross-cultural data

Rev. Person. Soc. Psychol.

How many emotions are there? Wedding the social and the autonomic components

Am. J. Sociol.

The Anatomy of Dependence

Japanese Patterns of Behavior

Japanese Society: Tradition, Self and the Social Order

Section D
Cultural variations in the response to psychiatric disorders and emotional distress