Culture and Psychopathology Revisited

Cultural factors can cause mental illness, especially during rapid social change. Specific conditions arise in different groups: anomic depression among North American Indians and transient psychotic reactions (bouffée délirante) among Africans. Beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery often shape psychotic symptoms in marginalized Africans and tradition-bound Southern Europeans. So-called culture-bound syndromes emerge, transform, and spread epidemically under shifting socioeconomic and political conditions. Ritualized possession, trance states, and religious rituals should be distinguished from psychopathological phenomena to avoid Eurocentric and positivistic errors in psychiatric diagnosis.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The author presents examples of pathogenic influence of culture. He identifies specific pathogenic factors associated with rapid socio-cultural change affecting North American Indians and African populations and sketches the resulting typical psychopathological conditions: anomic depression in Amerindians, transient psychotic reactions (bouffée délirante) in Africans. Witchcraft and sorcery beliefs often characterize the clinical picture of psychotic reactions in “marginal” Africans and in transplanted South Europeans of tradition-directed background. Examples are provided which illustrate the emergence, metamorphosis and epidemic spreading of so-called “culture-bound syndromes” under changing socio-economic, cultural and political conditions. Ritualized possession and trance states, as well as religious rituals in general, are to be separated from psychopathological phenomena in order to avoid eurocentric and positivistic fallacies in psychiatric diagnosis.