Comparing Mental Health Cross Culturally

From specialists in several disciplines—psychiatry, general medicine, anthropology, sociology, and social work—the editors of this volume have assembled reports on a search for ways of identifying mentally ill people in other cultures and of determining what kinds of sociocultural factors influence the origin, course, and outcome of psychiatric disorders. The contributors have approached the subject through reviews of the literature, seminar discussions, and exploratory field studies carried out in Nova Scotia and among Eskimos, Navahos, and Mexicans. The book provides a methodological approach to important issues and problems in an area in which there is as yet only limited and uncertain knowledge. It will be useful to psychiatrists and epidemiologists working outside their own cultures, to psychologists and anthropologists, and as a handbook for specialists in mental health.

Every health professional interacts with patients from different cultures to their own, not just those from different countries, ethnic or religious groups, but also those with cultural differences due to sexual orientation, lifestyle, beliefs, age, gender, social status or perceived economic worth. The potential for confusions in communication and consequent problems are even greater in primary care mental health than in other areas.This guide for all health professionals provides a model for working in mental health across cultures, and outlines practical ways of using psychotherapy skills across cultures. It can be used as personal preparation by individuals in any primary care setting at home or abroad, or as a teaching tool for use with health professionals travelling to another culture, including overseas aid workers and those moving to a new country. It is also of great value to everyone interested in transcultural medicine. 'Wherever we work, whoever we are, we are working across cultures, often without realising it. The first step is to become conscious of this fact. The next step is to read this book' - Jill Benson and Jill Thistlethwaite.

This edited volume provides new perspectives on how shame is experienced and transformed within digital worlds and Industry 4.0. The editors and authors discuss how individuals and organisations can constructively transform shame at work, in professional and private contexts, and with regard to socio-cultural lifestyle changes, founded in digitalisation and Industry 4.0. The contributions in this volume enable researchers and practitioners alike to unlock the topic of shame and its specifics in the highly dynamic and rapidly changing times to explore this emotion in depth in connection with remote workplaces, home office, automated realities and smart systems, or digitalised life- and working styles. By employing transdisciplinary and transcultural perspectives, the volume further discusses shame in the context of new lifestyles, religion, gender, sexual suppression, mental illness, and the nature of citizenship. Researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of industrial and organisational psychology, positive psychology, organisational studies, future studies, health and occupational science and therapy, emotion sciences, management, leadership and human resources will find the contributions highly topical, insightful and applicable to practice. Fresh, timely, thought-provoking with each turn of the page, this impressive volume explores shame in today’s world. Moving beyond the simple “guilt is good; shame is bad” perspective, authors from diverse disciplines examine adaptive and maladaptive aspects of shame in the context of contemporary issues (e.g., social media use, COVID-19) via multiple cultural and social lenses. Aptly named, Shame 4.0 is a treasure trove of rich ideas ripe for empirical study – a blueprint for the next generation of research on this complex and ubiquitous emotion. Bravo! --June Tangney, PhD, University Professor and Professor of Psychology, George Mason University, USA Uncovering Shame - To a much greater extent than other emotions like anger, grief, and fear, until recently most shame in modern societies has been hidden from sight. The text you see in this book is one of the steps that is being taken to make it more visible and therefore controllable. -- Thomas Scheff, Prof. Emeritus Department of Sociology, UCSB, Santa Bararbara, Ca.

Some of the most innovative and provocative work on the emotions and illness is occurring in cross-cultural research on depression. Culture and Depression presents the work of anthropologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists who examine the controversies, agreements, and conceptual and methodological problems that arise in the course of such research. A book of enormous depth and breadth of discussion, Culture and Depression enriches the cross-cultural study of emotions and mental illness and leads it in new directions. It commences with a historical study followed by a series of anthropological accounts that examine the problems that arise when depression is assessed in other cultures. This is a work of impressive scholarship which demonstrates that anthropological approaches to affect and illness raise central questions for psychiatry and psychology, and that cross-cultural studies of depression raise equally provocative questions for anthropology.

This is the definitive textbook on global mental health, an emerging priority discipline within global health, which places priority on improving mental health and achieving equity in mental health for all people worldwide.

This volume presents cutting-edge work in cross-cultural psychiatry by an international group of clinicians, researchers, and leaders in mental health policy. The book grew out of a recent lecture series at the Massachusetts General Hospital and features contributions from diverse fields including psychiatry, psychology, anthropology, social work, social medicine, and public policy. The first section highlights the implications of biological and cultural diversity for psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Subsequent sections focus on psychotherapy in cross-cultural contexts and international mental health policy. Chapters examine a variety of patient populations, including Asian, African, and Hispanic Americans and populations in Europe and developing countries.