Cultural variations in the understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders: India and England

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Abstract
Although much has been made of the nation of cultural specificity of mental illness, this paper argues that mental illness is a universal human experience. However, the types of disorders, the incidence and the severity of disorders may vary markedly across cultures. To understand mental illness and identify it across cultures, it is necessary to examine the problem against the backdrop of the dominant value systems which prevail in any culture at a given point in time. There are salient value systems to which most cultures subscribe, which in turn influence our understanding, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and consequently the allocation of resources and the provision of care within the community. The different valueorientations between Western and Eastern cultures have a strong bearing on the problems of diagnosis and on the treatment of mental disorders, which in many instances are the outgrowth of the available resources and the acceptance of traditional arrangements unique to each culture.