Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche

I ordered this book because it was a requirement for my graduate class psychopathology. It is a VERY GOOD BOOK! I would highly recommend."Crazy Like Us" by Ethan Watters is a compelling exploration of how Western ideas about mental illness are reshaping global perspectives on mental health. Watters skillfully blends insightful research with vivid storytelling to reveal the profound impact of cultural context on psychiatric diagnoses and treatments. The book is both thought-provoking and eye-opening, challenging readers to reconsider their assumptions about mental health and its universality. Watters' accessible writing makes complex topics engaging, making this a must-read for anyone interested in psychology, sociology, or global health.

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. A person who is distressed will express it by drawing from whatever pool of symptoms is available in his culture-which may well be completely different from what is available in my culture.In Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche, Ethan Watters, a veteran journalist who presented a scathing indictment of the recovered memory movement in Making Monsters, examines four illnesses in four parts of the world: anorexia in Hong Kong, PTSD in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan.These four illnesses (and cultures) are quite different from each other, but share something important: none of them looked like the accepted Western clinical definition of the disease. Anorexics in Hong Kong did not believe that they were fat, trauma sufferers in Sri Lanka tended to describe physical symptoms and damage to family relationships rather than psychological problems, schizophrenics in Zanzibar were believed to be possessed by spirits, and in Japan, milder forms of depression were not viewed as an illness that requires treatment.Watters describes a world far from the definitive-sounding edicts of the DSM (the diagnostical and statistical manual of psychological disorders, the handbook of Western psychology); one in which distress is signaled in an enormous variety of ways. "The simple but mind-bending truth," the anthropologist Allan Young explains, "is that mental illnesses such as PTSD can be both culturally shaped and utterly real to the sufferer." This world collides unhappily with the immutable-disease view of much of the Western mental health establishment. (Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down makes a good companion read.)Western mental health professionals increasingly treat patients throughout the world, and are often far less helpful than they believe. A Western-trained therapist, unwilling to consider that a Hong Kong anorexic does not believe herself fat, is unable to hear what the patient is actually saying. This is one problem with the globalization of the DSM. An even larger concern is that in the course of describing an illness, particularly if the description is dispersed widely throughout a culture, therapists may actually create an illness where it did not exist before. The local expressions of mental illness begin to disappear, and the clues that could have been gleaned from them are lost.Crazy Like Us is not a polemic against Western mental health care: it is clear that competent Western therapists can be very helpful, under the right circumstances. It is equally clear, though, that they can be distinctly unhelpful under the wrong circumstances, when they fail to understand that their definitions are not universal.This is especially clear in Sri Lanka, as American therapists rush to the scene of the tsunami, insisting that the local population has no understanding of trauma, and no idea how to treat victims. The psychology professor Ken Miller suggests that we consider the opposite scenario, with Mozambicans telling 9/11 survivors which rituals they need to engage in to sever their relationships with deceased family members. That the therapists earnestly believe themselves to be doing good makes these scenes no less disturbing. They explain that large segments of the population will fall victim to PTSD, and that it is not necessary to understand Sri Lankan culture to make this prediction. (There is an obvious connection to Watters' previous work, with echoes of the victim mentality that characterized the recovered memory movement in these PTSD predictions, as well as in the medicalization of very minor depression in Japan. Human beings occupy a large spectrum, from fragility to resilience, and it's not clear why fragility should be the default option.) These therapists are, of course, wrong: Sri Lankan history is sadly full of tragedy, and Sri Lankans have developed specific and effective methods of coping with it.In all of these cultures, a shift is underway to a more Western view of the mind. Watters believes that a society is most susceptible to this influence when it is under a great deal of strain: the Chinese takeover in Hong Kong, for instance, or the tsunami in Sri Lanka. These changes do not happen on their own, but tend to be encouraged by outside agencies. The most striking instance of Western intervention that Watters describes is a successful attempt by a consortium of pharmaceutical companies to change the definition of depression in Japan, through an enormous and society-wide campaign. The high regard in which U.S. knowledge is held in much of the world makes such attempts to influence local mental health practices particularly effective-and dangerous.From the U.S. point of view, the culture-blind promotion of Western ideas on the mind could appear to be a good thing. Shift your vantage point a bit, though, and these efforts look misguided and even harmful. This is a brilliant and genuinely paradigm-shattering book.

Ethan Watters, an American journalist explores in his book Crazy Like Us, the globalization of American based mental illnesses such as anorexia, schizophrenia, PTSD, etc. In his book he explores four different types of illnesses and allows the reader to see just how much impact the American definitions and symptoms of these mental illnesses have had on other societies. He is able to keep his readers captivated by incorporating the stories of people who are inflicted with this disorder. He also allows the reader to see how the disorder progressed from having a cultural specific identity to being manipulated into an entirely new being. One of his first examples is that of anorexia in China, at first the reason behind the disorder was completely different from our own, that was until it became exposed to the population.Which is where Watters introduces the concept of western technology and science. In his book he stakes the claim that because of the advanced science and technology possessed by the United States, leads to less economically stable countries to embrace ideas that are foreign to them without thinking how it will affect their cultural background. He proves this point several times in the book, whether it be the United States influencing the introduction of a mental illness to another country, or the use of data collected in the United States in order to push a new SSRI.Watter’s takes a topic that is what some would call near and dear to individuals of the United States, as mental illness is becoming a more prominent issues, and showing how it is negatively affecting societies that have not been introduced to these ideas. Meaning that no these societies quite possible did have these disorders in their society but before the globalization of their symptoms and definitions they had an entirely different meaning. They became something new instead of what they had always been. The reader sees then when reading chapter three of schizophrenics in Africa, the disorder was always there just never given a name or symptoms addressed to it. Instead it was just a burden to bare from God. Which is where the reader gets to see how the society accepts and treats the disorder.Watters book is very well constructed and easy to lose oneself in because of the stories he tells of others, and does not bog down the reading with countless studies done, or scholarly information that takes away from the meaning. If one is interested in anthropology, and medical studies this is definitely a book to read. It not only touches base with American culture, but several other cultures, and also gives the reader a taste of the medical aspects of the world. It also allows the reader to see a more in depth view of medical companies and how sometimes these companies are not out for the betterment of individuals; they are out for the betterment of their wallets. Watters took a unique topic and allowed the individuals stories speak for themselves on how globalization has left a devastating footprint on numerous societies; a footprint that some individuals may not be able to recover from.

Ethan Waters knows how to get our attention. He uses humor, his personal experience, to relay the horrors created by well meaning mental health professionals importing western medical and therapeutic practices overseas. Over and over the down side of western culture universalist thinking (once you know how we do things you are sure to agree and adopt our way of doing it). Sometimes Watters is over the top with assumptions that everyone in the West will behave as his examples show. He is wrong about that .....nevertheless this is an important book and great read.

AWESOME

Mental disorder can change by cultural influence?This is the main question in this book and conclusions are surprising.You will read about how depression works in Japan or how you can create symptoms in a group simply using propaganda.A important issue in modern world.

Ich habe das Buch als Vorbereitung für ein Seminar zum Thema psychologische und psychiatrische Anthropologie gekauft und bin sehr begeistert! Es ist ein super Einstieg in das Feld, der Autor schreibt sehr kritisch und in einem Schreibstil, der sehr gut zu verstehen ist. Wenn man etwas tiefer in das Thema einsteigen will, empfehle ich die Werke von Autoren mit mehr fachlichem Wissen, wie z.B. Derek Summerfield, Anthony Marsella oder Arthur Kleinman. Ich empfehle das Buch unbedingt weiter! Entweder als Einstieg in das Feld oder für jemanden, der nicht wissenschaftlich mit dem Buch arbeiten möchte.

This is good book. Its amazing how some mental illnesses can be (can be made) contagious by the extraordinary marketing strategies of modern businesses

薬を売りたいがために、日本でうつ病を「トレンド」に仕立て上げたアメリカの製薬会社の方々、やり手です。宇宙商人ズダーバンみたいな人間は、いつもどこにでも現れ、甘い言葉をささやき、毒を売るのですね。