Cultural psychiatry: the past and the future

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511543609.045

Cultural psychiatry: the past and the future

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 August 2009

Dinesh Bhugra and

Kamaldeep Bhui

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Dinesh Bhugra and

Kamaldeep Bhui

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Dinesh Bhugra: Affiliation:
Mental Health and Cultural Diversity Section of Cultural Psychiatry Institute of Psychiatry King's College London De Crespigny Park London SE5 8AF UK
Kamaldeep Bhui: Affiliation:
Department of Cultural Psychiatry and Epidemiology Institute of Community Health Sciences Queen Mary London E1 4NS UK
Dinesh Bhugra: Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
Kamaldeep Bhui: Affiliation:
Barts & The London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry

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Introduction

As is evident, cultural psychiatry deals with the relationship between culture and mental illness and how idioms of distress are portrayed and acknowledged within cultures. The role of cultures in moulding an individual's personality and growing up, along with social-support systems, determines not only the diagnosis of disorders but also management strategies. It is imperative that clinicians are as aware of cultural factors as they are of biological factors, which are also influenced by culturally determined patterns such as diet.

The future of cultural psychiatry will influence how psychiatric conditions present themselves and how help is sought. With changes in global movements of people, their ethnic and cultural identities will change and that will determine the distress and its expressions. The degree of change will be determined by a number of factors – individual personality traits, relationships and contacts within the kinship, and broader societal factors. The changes may be transient, semi-permanent or permanent.

Ethnic identity depends upon the cultural or physical criteria, which set the group apart and, wherever we go, we take our identities with us and with inter-racial marriages and relationships these will change. The ethnic group may set itself apart using superiority or inferiority on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics (Feagin, 1978) and placed on cultural physical criteria which set the group apart (Thompson, 1989).

Type: Chapter
Information: Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry , pp. 561 - 568

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511543609.045 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

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Cultural psychiatry: the past and the future

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