Cultural differences in treating and diagnosing mental illnesses Term Paper

Cultural differences in treating and diagnosing mental illnesses - Term Paper Example 142-143). The candidate must separate from his people and adopt estranged behavior as if preparing for his own death. He reaches the point where he has adopted a different identity as if born again. But the habits he then picks up may find him living near cremation sites and even eating dead flesh. Such behavior, accepted in India or Nepal, would be seen as outside the norm in the United States or Europe. Anthropologists look across cultures to determine what is social conformity and how personalities are evaluated and accepted within its range. There may be forms of mental illness or disorder occurring across culture. This may well be the case of schizophrenia, which seems to appear in other cultures and represent individuals with extreme delusions. Such individuals may hear voices which others don't hear and then go into extreme isolation or withdrawal from the trust of others (Haviland et al, p. 150). As explained below, other cultures may even treat schizophrenia different than A merican and European cultures. One concept of mental illness in the United States addresses such illnesses as psychosomatic ailments. These ailments indicate illnesses rooted in the mind that may not have direct and or obvious physiological causes. In the Euramerican tradition these illnesses may be treated under the biomedicine system. This system is based on the dualistic mind-body theory rooted in Western philosophy and psychology. The biomedicine system has been seen as an effective one in America. It has resulted in a large pharmaceutical industry that has virtually developed medication for all kinds of mental illnesses. Yet other cultures may approach psychosomatic ailments differently, reflecting their own healing systems. Immigrants or people from other countries in European and North American societies may respond differently to the cultural pressures of their new lands. They may also respond differently to the medication issued under the biomedical system. Other lands and cultures may not have such theories dominated by a scientific mind body bias. They may respond more to, for example, certain spiritual beliefs of their own cultures. Anthropologists have been investigating some of these cross cultural differences and may help eventually integrate the concept of biomedical approaches in the West with workable approaches from other countries. Culture bound Syndromes Researchers and anthropologists have noted examples of ethnic psychoses appearing specific to certain cultures. Sometimes referred to as culture bound syndromes, these forms of psychoses denote mental disorders that appear bound to unique combinations of environmental settings and cultural practices. They are specific to particular ethnic or cultural groups. In several places in Southeast Asian and Africa, some men suffer from koro, a belief that their genital organs are retracting back into their bodies (Watters, 2010). The feeling is extreme enough that some patients feel they may die du e to possible causes of too much sex or masturbation (Haviland et al). Certain Algonquian Indians have demonstrated the malady of falling into a trancelike state inducing fear in others that they are cannibals. Different cultures across the world tend to have their own specific maladies that are usually related to narratives and stories of their own countries. However, in this present day of mass market communication