The problem of cultural specificity of mental illness: a survey of comparative psychiatry

The question posed in the present paper arises from the relationship of psychiatric disorder to culture. This question is: Are mental diseases the same all over the world, or do certain mental diseases exist only in one country or cultural setting and therefore are the specific product of that given culture? After a careful review of the literature supplemented by his own anthropological observations and psychiatric reports, the author was able to conclude that most of the allegedly "specific" mental sickness, which reflect in their behaviour the specific cultural content of the victim's society, are simply local varieties of a common disease process to which human beings, as such, are vulnerable.