Culture Bound Syndrome Essay

“Culture is, in part, a symbolic organisation of behaviour in which the meaning of that behaviour is expressed in interpersonal processes stemming from cultural traditions.” This is Opler’s definition of culture shows that it is a vital part of every individual’s life and that the meaning of behaviour can change from one culture to another. This aspect is very important to clinical diagnosis because the culture can play a part in the interpretation of behaviour and this has its relevance to diagnosis and treatment.

Culture-bound syndromes are then determined with respect to the episode in a particular culture which could be locally defined since it is indigenous to that culture. There have been questions raised about the reason why the disorders

This has hindered the usage of treatment methods familiar to the natives and instead made them use alien practices. Apart from this, the method of classification into various strictly defined categories makes it harder to seem normal even within a specific culture. (Sumathipala A., Siribaddana, S.H., Bhugra, D, 2004)

Researchers have claimed that culture-bound syndromes need to move beyond the problems accompanying the labels. This is known as the ‘label grip’ which is the political analytical acumen surrounding the difficulties of labelling. It is necessary to expore the differences between the non-culture bound and culture bound syndromes.

Two of the most important diagnostic manuals, ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1992) and DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) have been amended over the years to include culture as a possible factor in the diagnosis of particular psychological conditions. They have given space for undefined or unspecified syndromes so that a neutral position is maintained while diagnosis. This is informative for finding the causes with respect to the culture they belong to.

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There was no need to change the feelings experienced because the actions that one takes will automatically result in change in feelings. He said that life should be accepted as it is which he termed as arugamama or the reality as is. Acceptance is key in this therapy so that they can move on to doing the more important things in their