Toward a more comprehensive medical anthropology: the case of adolescent psychopathology

This article argues for a more comprehensive analytical approach in medical anthropology than is currently followed, one that combines attention to structural factors (political, economic, medical/psychiatric), experiential/symbolic expressions and meanings, and biological/bodily features of disorders. We show how subject matter that may be defined as "adolescent psychopathology" would be better understood by a comprehensive approach than by partial views. Three areas within adolescent psychopathology are chosen as illustrative: anorexia nervosa, dissociation, and social aggression. Each of these, like adolescence itself, is powerfully shaped by historical and contemporary cultural influences, and each implicates important theories in medical anthropology.