Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche

by Ethan Watters

We are engaged in the grand project of Americanizing the world’s understanding of the human mind.

Empathy is prized among all mental health providers, but it’s an ephemeral and untestable quality.

anorexia felt like getting on a train, only to discover too late that she was headed in the wrong direction.

no segment of the world’s population is more vulnerable to being swept away by the currents of globalization than adolescents.

“A victim processes a traumatic event as a function of what it means,” they wrote. “This meaning is drawn from their society and culture and this shapes how they seek help and their expectation of recovery.”

We don’t indoctrinate. We empower.”

there is little about the human reaction to trauma that is universal.

“In a situation of desperation, local people often silence their own cultural practices, cling to Western approaches that have the imprimatur of science,