Sociocultural Foundations of Psychopathology: An Historical Overview of Concepts, Events and Pioneers Prior to 1970

Mental Illness and Families in Contemporary Hong Kong: an Ethnography of Mental Illness and Chinese Families in Hong Kong at the Time of Transition of Sovereignty

“…In the first few chapters I discussed in detail the important influence that the social reality, made up of historical, political and socio-cultural contexts, has on one's concepts and interpretations of health, illness, and healing experiences. Such a notion is consistent with those proposed by medical anthropologists and researchers in the field of cross-cultural psychiatry (e.g., Castillo, 1997;Fitzgerald et aI., 1996b;Kleinman, 1980Kleinman, , 1987Kleinman, , 1988Kleinman, Eisenberg, & Good, 1978;Marsella, 1993;Marsella & Yamada, 2000;Tseng, 1997;Tseng, Lin & Yeh, 1995a) Furthermore, my ability to read both Chinese and English literature helped me to examine issues from different and wider perspectives. As suggested by Fitzgerald, Paterson, and Azzopardi (1997), by being a participant observer, not only could I perceive the issues as local, I could also draw on my knowledge and experience.…”

“…Those in positions of power and influence often assumed this view .so that mental disorders were considered universal in their onset, expression, course, and outcome, and any variations (e.g., culture-specific disorders such as Koru, Latah, sustu) were simply minor deviations within a prototypic universal disorder (Marsella, 2000). There was a tendency to ignore the cultural factors that influence people's perceptions of mental disorders (Castillo, 1997;Kleinman, 1987;Marsella, 1993;Tseng, 1997). Lin (1982) pointed out that clinical universal ism originates in the belief that all human beings basically live, feel, think and behave alike, so that the symptomatology, course, and outcome of a disease, as well as the treatment or theories of causation should apply in all cases in spite of any individual, racial, ethnic or cultural differences.…”

Cultural Aspects of Depressive Experience and Disorders

“…Cross-cultural research in anthropology, psychiatry, psychology and other professionals and disciplines has been uniform in its conclusion that there are substantial variations in depressive experience and disorder (e.g., Kleinman & Good, 1986;Manson & Kleinman, 1998;Marsella, 1993;Marsella, Kaplan, & Suarez, 2002). Continued efforts to disregard or dismiss this fact can only result in problems for both patients and practitioners.…”

A Psychopathological Study on Elderly Japanese Delusional Depressives in Relation to Collapse of Traditional Japanese Culture

“…As Kraepelin12) observed, culture modifies the phenomenology of psychosis. Recently, Kleinman and G00d13) pointed out that culture shapes the experience and expression of psychopathology by supplying specific contents to thoughts and feelings, because culture, as Marsella suggested, 14) is represented internally as values, beliefs, attitudes and consciousness. Therefore, careful examination of the specific contents of thoughts and feelings of elderly Japanese depressive patients, considering their cultural background, may contribute to clarifying their psychological problems associated with depression and enable us to deal more practically with it.…”