ithinkjesusiscool Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Pax! I have been watching some videos about transcultural psychiatry http://www.youtube.com/user/TCpsychiatry I find the idea of cultural syndromes very interesting, eg, ataque de nervios and taijin kyofusho. Some say that BPD could be described as a western cultural syndrome. What's your opinion of all of this? We don't express ourselves in the same way I think. Another interesting things is how people from different cultures express themselves or understand things. For many people of different cultures who convert to Catholicism it would be really strange to go to the extraordinary form of the roman rite. I guess even westerners think so. I have watch some youtube videos with priests celebrating African inspired Roman rite Mass. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2RqHZ9YzN0 Couldn't those Africans be happy with the traditional Mass? It seem to work for some africans and some of the chinese. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PImOqOwr9Po How much should religion (and Liturgy) adopt to a specific culture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I doubt bipolar is just a western disorder. I know schizophrenia is 1% of the population worldwide, across gender, economic, class and culture lines, including the third world. Bipolar and schizophrenia are both seeded by a mutation on the same chromosome, so related in ways we don't yet understand. I think we just have such a frenetic society that those with bipolar in the western world get their symptoms set off more often. Stress is toxic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 There is an interesting case with possession. I think it's called "Zar". It makes me wonder if some possessions that Catholics go through nowadays are a result of our belief in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ithinkjesusiscool Posted May 6, 2013 Author Share Posted May 6, 2013 I don't know if bipolar and other kinds of mood disorders are particular western culture-bound syndrome. I would definetly say that borderline personality disorder is a mostly a modern western phenomena. Read this most interesting article about it: http://72.52.202.216/~fenderse/transpersonal.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyAnn Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 There are such things as culture bound syndromes (fan death and Wendigo psychosis for example) but I have never ever heard of bipolar disorder being classified as culture-bound. Also, just about the worst place you can look for such information is YouTube (or most places easily accessible on the internet. Any idiot can post on the internet saying whatever they like. Peer review exists for a reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-fish Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Pax, not Paxil! There is no such thing as mental illness. It is not a medical disease. It is stress on the soul, or Holy Spirited or demonic possession. Dr. Scott M Peck, MD wrote about demonic possession. "People of the Lie" and "Glimpses of the Devil". I'm an advocate for the modern day lepers or what secular society calls "mentally ill". Schizophrenic people are my favorite. They know more about God than most ordained. They are not evil. Most of them are afraid of you. Did you know "religious pre-occupation" is a symptom of mental illness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 There are such things as culture bound syndromes (fan death and Wendigo psychosis for example) but I have never ever heard of bipolar disorder being classified as culture-bound. Also, just about the worst place you can look for such information is YouTube (or most places easily accessible on the internet. Any idiot can post on the internet saying whatever they like. Peer review exists for a reason. Fan death is an urban legend more than a medical syndrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriela Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 (edited) I read somewhere (I think it was Luhrmann's book "When God Talks") that schizophrenia did not exist until industrialization. (Which is to say there has never been found any indication of it in the medical records of history. Not even anything that looks remotely like it.) Edited May 6, 2013 by curiousing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Schizophrenia has been around for centuries. My husband has it, his mom has it, his great grandmother had it in Victorian London. She spent the last 20 years of her life in Bedlam. The man in Luke 8 living in the cemetary was probably one of my husband's ancestors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4588686 Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 I read somewhere (I think it was Luhrmann's book "When God Talks") that schizophrenia did not exist until industrialization. (Which is to say there has never been found any indication of it in the medical records of history. Not even anything that looks remotely like it.) There is a huge difference between a mental issue existing and it being documented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Fan death is an urban legend more than a medical syndrome. True! I think she's referring to the fact that people have been found dead in the morning with the fan on, implying that belief of "fan death" might have been the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriela Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 There is a huge difference between a mental issue existing and it being documented. Obviously, which is why I clarified. Though I do think that something as noticeable as schizophrenia would have turned up in medical records, and that psychologists today would be able to identify the illness by its pretty distinct symptoms. Luhrmann is an anthropologist of psychiatry. I don't remember whom she was citing, but the explanation sounded pretty plausible to me (i.e., of why schizophrenia would be an "industrial" illness). Unfortunately it was so long ago that I can't remember what that explanation was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HisChildForever Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 The abbreviation "BPD" is Borderline Personality Disorder, not Bipolar. Either the OP used the wrong abbreviation but meant Bipolar or really was referring to BPD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HisChildForever Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I don't know if bipolar and other kinds of mood disorders are particular western culture-bound syndrome. I would definetly say that borderline personality disorder is a mostly a modern western phenomena. Read this most interesting article about it: http://72.52.202.216/~fenderse/transpersonal.htm That article was written by an anthropologist. I would most definitely NOT say that BPD is a "modern western phenomena." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 That article was written by an anthropologist. I would most definitely NOT say that BPD is a "modern western phenomena." http://sites.davidson.edu/psy231/borderline-personality-disorder-cultural-variations/ A lazy search seems to indicate that you're right. It might have been a misconception that BPD is an american culture bound syndrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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