It is well known that American culture is a dominant force at home and abroad; our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-doc...
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Jan 30, 2011
matt
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Kudos to my friends on goodreads who feel inspired enough to write full-fledged reviews; I simply can't muster the energy.
However, this book enraged me in a way few do and I feel compelled to share at least some of my thoughts. Watters caught my attention with the pot-shots he threw at the DSM in the NYT magazine earlier this year and I approached the book with cautious optimism. "Crazy Like Us" follows along the same lines as his initial article, providing four examples of w More...
However, this book enraged me in a way few do and I feel compelled to share at least some of my thoughts. Watters caught my attention with the pot-shots he threw at the DSM in the NYT magazine earlier this year and I approached the book with cautious optimism. "Crazy Like Us" follows along the same lines as his initial article, providing four examples of w More...
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Feb 20, 2011
Bryan
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This book offers a fascinating series of accounts of how Western (i.e. American, European) understandings of mental health have and are being exported to cultures throughout the world, often in ways that are profoundly at odds with deep cultural practices and traditions that understand the mind in fundamental different ways. Watters in engaging narrative form, carefully chronicles the rise of anorexia in Tokyo, PTSD in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan. At the heart o
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Jan 27, 2011
Kate
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Well, this was certainly interesting. From studying anthropology to working in international public health to studying psych nursing, this is right up my alley. I appreciate some of what he is trying to say, in that transcultural treatment options are often not adequately tailored to each new specific culture. To some degree, I also believe that mental illness is culturally determined, or at least expressed in the particular symptom pool of a time and place. But I also have seen that medicat
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Jan 25, 2011
Kater
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I read a lot of books about psychology and mental illness, but this book took what I already knew to a new level. It discusses four different illnesses in four different cultures: anorexia in Hong Kong, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, PTSD in Sri Lanka, and Depression in Japan.
One of the fascinating premises promoted by this book is that when Western psychologists describe a typical western mental illness to another culture, their incidence of that illness morph into a version closer to More...
One of the fascinating premises promoted by this book is that when Western psychologists describe a typical western mental illness to another culture, their incidence of that illness morph into a version closer to More...
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Jan 14, 2011
Lynne
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A very readable and very interesting read (I also heard the author in a radio interview you can find here: http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radi...). It had never occurred to me that HOW mental illness and distress expresses itself is very tied in to one's culture, so that the same event (a flood, a death, whatever) requires different treatment, ritual, etc depending on one's culture. The USA has pushed western psychiatry's (and psychology's) theories all over the world, but done next to noth
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Sep 05, 2010
Lisa
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Let me state up front I am not a huge fan of non-fiction books such as this. However my book club recently read it for our group discussion and I was pleasantly surprised how 'readable' the book was. I expected a very dry - and confusing - dissertation on today's East/West approach to mind and medicine. What Watters delivered was much more powerful thanks to the way he divided the topics into credible, relatable and (in a few instances) high profile examples. He did alot of data as background
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Jul 30, 2010
Lorin
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A woman tries to walk across a room, but collapses. Another suddenly goes blind, for no obvious physical reason. Victorian hysteria, clearly a product of a time when women lived highly constricted, repressed lives. A veteran suffering from PTSD, on the other hand: doubtless a real disease, immutable, applicable in all situations and cultures. Not so, says Ethan Watters, who convincingly argues that all mental illnesses are circumscribed and molded by the cultures in which they occur More...
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Jul 28, 2010
Making the rest of the world crazy
By Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe Correspondent | January 24, 2010
Americans are a generous people. We donate riches to needy countries. We send our troops abroad. We have exported some of history’s most influential cultural, scientific, and social inventions: democracy, fast food, and Britney Spears.
Whether that generosity is helpful to other nations is another question. And so it goes with mental health. According to Ethan Wa More...
By Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe Correspondent | January 24, 2010
Americans are a generous people. We donate riches to needy countries. We send our troops abroad. We have exported some of history’s most influential cultural, scientific, and social inventions: democracy, fast food, and Britney Spears.
Whether that generosity is helpful to other nations is another question. And so it goes with mental health. According to Ethan Wa More...
May 30, 2010
Alex
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This book reminds me of why I enjoy reading, and why I miss college: there are so many fascinating ideas out there, just there for the taking, if we are only exposed to them! This fascinating mix of anthropology and psychology examines how American notions of mental illness are beginning to shape their counterparts around the world. The idea that there are differing conceptions of mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia around the world is fascinating; it makes one's head kind of e
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May 27, 2010
Emily
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About ten years ago, I read an article in the Atlantic called A New Way to Be Mad, which asked whether people learning of a psychological diagnosis can actually make it contagious. The article discusses what is now known as body integrity identity disorder (people who want to amputate their limbs) and discussion of it on the Internet. Later, I read Fasting Girls which asks similar questions about Victorian sufferers of anorexia nervosa. Both pieces edged towards the idea that mental illness mani
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Sep 24, 2011
A very interesting book about the spread of specific types of mental illnesses from US and Europe to non-European countries. This book highlights the importance of understanding each individual culture's understandings of mental illness. The author notes instances where people begin developing a stigma against mentally ill and begin treating them with less kindness due to European influence(Schizophrenia in Zanzibar). In another case ( Anorexia in Hong Kong), the author notes that those sufferin
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Jan 26, 2010
Michelle
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I really enjoyed this passionately written examination of Western psychiatric models and how we pass them on to other cultures. I don't necessarily agree with everything the author said--for example, I don't happen to believe that "globalization" is automatically a four-letter word--but it is hard to argue with the carefully researched conclusions in this book. Watters accuses well-meaning Western mental health practitioners and models with actually damaging the mental health of thos
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Feb 22, 2010
Marya
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When you first read about the Western trauma groups competing with each other for Sri Lankan tsunami patients (telling children in one camp not to play with kids in "the other therapy group" for fear of ruining their own progress), you can't think that highly of Western psychologists and their ilk. But that would be missing the point.
Watters is trying to introduce a new way of thinking (pun!) about psychology. To Watters, mental illness is like a language. The individu More...
Watters is trying to introduce a new way of thinking (pun!) about psychology. To Watters, mental illness is like a language. The individu More...
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Aug 09, 2011
Ellen
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This was a fascinating read. The author covers four mental illnesses each in a different location. Anorexia in Hong Kong, PTSD in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan are the main focuses. He explores whether the Unites States, in her effort to help, is actually doing harm. He questions the egocentric, or rather national-centric, perspective of many major drug companies and mental health professionals. We (the West) assume we are the only "right" ones and attem
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Mar 09, 2010
Jess
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A wonderfully skeptical look at the well-intentioned but imperialistic spread of Western theories of psychology.
This is an excellent book: extremely engaging, very well researched and, in spite of it's dour and grumbling voice, it is not without hope. The author, Ethan Watters, makes his position clear at the outset : "The premise of this book is that the virus is us." But Watters later confesses that his wife is a psychologist, and the psychologists, therapists, and researchers More...
This is an excellent book: extremely engaging, very well researched and, in spite of it's dour and grumbling voice, it is not without hope. The author, Ethan Watters, makes his position clear at the outset : "The premise of this book is that the virus is us." But Watters later confesses that his wife is a psychologist, and the psychologists, therapists, and researchers More...
May 27, 2011
Alyse
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I think this book is a better read for those who have background in psychology/social work/counseling/etc. more so than for those who don't. It would still make sense if you had no idea about anything going in, but it makes several references to existentialism, Cartesian ideas, etc etc - things laymen don't tend to know. BUT! As someone WITH background, this book is good. I tend to think I'm pretty culturally sensitive, but this book points out things I hadn't really thought too much about until
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Feb 14, 2010
William Herschel
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An interesting look on the way mental illnesses are looked at in different cultures. The book has four main sections: anorexia in China, post-traumatic stress disorder in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan.
The book spends a great deal beating into your head that America is at fault. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I still found it uninteresting and tiresome-- the only chapter where it seemed particularly relevant was the chapter on PTSD.
Basically, More...
The book spends a great deal beating into your head that America is at fault. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I still found it uninteresting and tiresome-- the only chapter where it seemed particularly relevant was the chapter on PTSD.
Basically, More...
Oct 23, 2011
Mary Anne
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When I first started reading this book, I really wasn't in the mood and figured I'd continue to not like the book. However, the more I read, the more I liked it (and the more frustrated I grew, of course). The book looks at the influence of Western culture and its conceptualization of mental illness and healing across the world. The general idea is that both Westerners and those of other cultures hold up Western culture (and it's medical definitions, therapies, and medicine) as being the most co
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Sep 11, 2011
Real Supergirl
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This is a well-written, well-researched, and incredibly important book. I think that people who aren't in the mental health field could probably read it without realizing how important it is, in part because Watters does a good job of being objective and giving his subjects the benefit of the doubt - i.e. he assumes whenever possible that the mistakes being made are being done with good intentions. Towards the end of the book he reveals that his wife is a psychologist, and implies that this hel
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Feb 01, 2011
Ed
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Watters argues that American psychiatry's DSM is altering the landscape of mental illness around the world. He presents four very interesting stories to support this. The stories themselves don't seem like news, but he tells them in a vivid manner. My problem as I thought about the book is that I don't think that his examples fully support his thesis. If anorexia has morphed in Hong Kong, that does not explain its apparent increase in frequency. That increase is more related to the importing of
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May 04, 2010
Meghan
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I think this should be a required book for anyone studying psychology, or who is an American planning to work abroad (or change things abroad from home).
Written by a journalist, it is definitely a one-sided call to arms against the exportation of American's concepts of mental health, and our ways of diagnosing and treating. His tad sensationalized, and vehement presentation of the argument against Western psychological model's universality or usefulness to other countries, is most usef More...
Written by a journalist, it is definitely a one-sided call to arms against the exportation of American's concepts of mental health, and our ways of diagnosing and treating. His tad sensationalized, and vehement presentation of the argument against Western psychological model's universality or usefulness to other countries, is most usef More...
Mar 12, 2011
Austin
rated it:
A worthwhile read about a concept that's easy to lose sight of in medicine: that manifestations and interpretations of mental illness are culturally-bound. The author focuses on four case-studies: anorexia in Hong Kong, PTSD in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, schizophrenia in Zanzibar and depression in Japan. In each case, he makes the point that applying American and European diagnoses to populations with distinct cultural heritages surrounding mental illness has risks and unintended conseque
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Apr 19, 2010
Kw
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Watters attempts to prop up one line of defense from further American cultural and economic imperialism, this in the realm of psychiatry and mental illness. He argues, in a concise and lucid manner, that our exportation of views on the human mind often does much more harm than good, mostly because we tend to take for granted that all minds work like ours. Western mental illnesses, however, are products, to varying degrees, of our philosophies and way of life. They are not like traditional diseas
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Feb 06, 2010
Chelsea
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As someone embarking on a career as a clinical psychologist, this read definitely proved to be interesting and informative. While it's true that the Western world of psychology/psychiatry tends to disregard the nuances of cultural and environmental influence on social structures and the human mind...I found Water's indignance towards Western mental health treatment to be a bit annoying and redundant.
The best lesson any mental health practitioner can glean from this book is to admini More...
The best lesson any mental health practitioner can glean from this book is to admini More...
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Sep 04, 2010
Amy
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Western influence has taken over the world in most aspects of life, including taking over how people experience mental illness. I didn't realize until I read this that different cultures have their own varieties of mental illness, and their own ways of treating them--often much more effectively than Western medicine does. This was an interesting history of the evolution of mental health care, and a disturbing look at how Western definitions of and remedies for mental illness are steamrolling o
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May 19, 2011
Kathleen
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I love how this book got underneath some of the assumptions I hold that are culturally bound that I have not given much thought to. In what I think is a brilliant design, Ethan Watters takes four examples and takes a good look at each. I'm glad he did that rather than using more examples but not examining each as deeply.
If you're given any thought to whether the "science" of mental health and mental illness is not as absolute as we've been told, there's a lot for you to ch More...
If you're given any thought to whether the "science" of mental health and mental illness is not as absolute as we've been told, there's a lot for you to ch More...
May 01, 2011
Wade
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This is a great book - engaging, readable, informative, and even-handed in its discussion of how Western mental health professionals and drug companies engage in cultural colonialism. While this happens often under the guise of helping, the author exposes some of the underlying assumptions that cause well-meaning (and occasionally crassly capitalist) people to trample other ways of viewing selfhood and mental health. In comparing mental health diversity to biodiversity, the author strives not to
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Jun 29, 2010
Andrea
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If I ever get back to graduate school, it will be to study the relationship between culture and expressions of mental illness/health. So, obviously, I was very excited to learn of this book, which uses four examples to demonstrate the ways in which mental illnesses are embedded within culture and how the international spread of American "expertise" is changing concepts of mental illness around the world. The premise of this book is so interesting (and I think not just to mental healt
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Jul 14, 2010
Christina
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This book offers an interesting perspective on the impact of culture on mental health. Watters suggests that mental illness occurs, is expressed, and is experienced within specific cultural contexts. Furthermore, the expression and experience of mental illness unique to each culture is a valid and important story in the fabric of human mental health. He discusses anorexia in China, PTSD in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan. Each of these stories presents an example of
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May 15, 2010
shannon
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eta: ok, i have completed it but i need to process a bit more before i can put in to words what bothered me about it....
caveat: i am only in the middle of the sri lanka chapter.
so, i am beginning to have this issue with books written by reporters about mental health. maybe those who can do, those who can't write truncated soundbytey missives on it? again, an excellent and important premise. the problem is when you have someone [who apparently from his previou More...
caveat: i am only in the middle of the sri lanka chapter.
so, i am beginning to have this issue with books written by reporters about mental health. maybe those who can do, those who can't write truncated soundbytey missives on it? again, an excellent and important premise. the problem is when you have someone [who apparently from his previou More...
