The Americanization of Mental Illness?

[aquitaine]

Any thoughts about it? (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html)

[mgb_phys]

Shouldn't it be the Austrian-isation of mental illness?
If everybody still bases everything on a couple of guys from Vienna a century ago.

[aquitaine]

Well I don't know, that's why I came here to ask the experts. :p

[atyy]

Yes, some things are cultural, and culture changes over time.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter2/sec8.html
"Culture also imprints mental health by influencing whether and how individuals experience the discomfort associated with mental illness. When conveyed by tradition and sanctioned by cultural norms, characteristic modes of expressing suffering are sometimes called “idioms of distress” (Lu et al., 1995)."

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter4/sec4.html
"For example, among members of some cultural groups, “visions” or “voices” of religious figures are part of normal religious experience. In many communities, “seeing” or being “visited” by a recently deceased person are not unusual among family members. Therefore, labeling an experience as pathological or a psychiatric symptom can be a subtle process for the clinician with a different cultural or ethnic background from the patient; indeed, cultural variations and nuances may occur within the diverse subpopulations of a single racial, ethnic, or cultural group. Often, however, clinicians’ training, skills, and views tend to reflect their own social and cultural influences."

[zoobyshoe]

Shouldn't it be the Austrian-isation of mental illness?
If everybody still bases everything on a couple of guys from Vienna a century ago.

Actually, they don't. Freud and Jung were not psychiatrists, but psychoanalysts, which is a different animal. If you look at the wikipedia article on psychiatry you'll see it preceeded Jung and Freud by a few decades and continued past them, being only slightly influenced by them for a while. Psychoanalysis has pretty much fallen from favor. The closest descendants of the Viennese duo would be the present day psychotherapists.

[Proton Soup]

http://www.ifc.com/movies/mv002004500000/does-your-soul-have-a-cold.php


Does Your Soul Have A Cold?

IFC Film Synopsis
2006 | Director: Mike Mills | TVMA
Directed by acclaimed independent filmmaker Mike Mills ("Thumbsucker"), "Does Your Soul Have a Cold?" looks at the impact of exporting American definitions of depression and the use of antidepressants to the ancient culture of Japan over the past several years.

In 1999, American pharmaceutical companies, seeking to expand their markets, helped to create a huge ad campaign to educate Japanese about mild depression. The campaign centered on the slogan "Does Your Soul Have a Cold?" Since then, Japanese awareness of depression has rapidly increased along with rising sales of antidepressants.

"Does Your Soul Have a Cold?" is an intimate and compassionate journey into the lives of five depressed Japanese individuals who decide to take antidepressants. Their personal histories are examined, together with their hopes and fears, ultimately offering an intriguing perspective on the broad socio-cultural issues that are only now being uncovered in Japan.

[mgb_phys]

http://www.utne.com/2005-01-01/NotDepressedJustBritish.aspx

[Proton Soup]

antidepressants are 75% placebo?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/232781

[Pythagorean]

http://www.utne.com/2005-01-01/NotDepressedJustBritish.aspx

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...