{"id":31021,"date":"2020-06-08T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathewingram.blog\/?p=31021"},"modified":"2020-06-08T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T16:00:00","slug":"mental-illness-as-a-social-and-cultural-artifact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2020\/06\/08\/mental-illness-as-a-social-and-cultural-artifact\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental illness as a social and cultural artifact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"In<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This article is a fascinating look at the connection<\/a> between certain kinds of mental illness and the different social or cultural circumstances that lead to them: “In Cambodia, for example, it\u2019s commonly believed that the body is riddled with channels that contain a wind-like substance \u2013 and if these become blocked, the resulting wind overdose will cause the sufferer to permanently lose the use of a limb or die. Out of 100 Khmer patients at one psychiatric clinic in the US, one study found that 36% had experienced an episode of the illness at some point. Bouts usually proceed slowly, starting with a general feeling of malaise. Then, one day, the victim will stand up and notice that they feel dizzy \u2013 and this is how they know that the attack is starting. Eventually they\u2019ll fall to the ground, unable to move or speak until their relatives have administered the appropriate first aid, which usually consists of massaging their limbs or biting their ankles.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the central plateau region of Haiti, people regularly fall sick with \u201creflechi tw\u00f2p<\/a>\u201d, or \u201cthinking too much\u201d, which involves ruminating on your troubles until you can barely leave the house. In South Korea, meanwhile, there\u2019s \u201cHwa-byung<\/a>\u201d \u2013 loosely translated as \u201crage virus\u201d \u2013 which is caused by bottling up your feelings about things you see as unfair, until you succumb to some alarming physical symptoms, like a burning sensation in the body. Dealing with exasperating family members is a major risk factor \u2013 it\u2019s common during divorces and conflicts with in-laws.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“in the Islamic world, it\u2019s widely believed that it\u2019s possible to become possessed by \u201cjinns\u201d, or evil spirits. They can be good, bad, or neutral, but they\u2019re generally blamed for erratic behaviour. The concept is so mainstream, it\u2019s even in the Muslim holy book, the Koran. \u201cA lot of my patients do hold these beliefs quite strongly,\u201d says Shahzada Nawaz, a consultant psychiatrist at North Manchester General Hospital in the UK.  Nawaz explains that the ability to invoke jinns is particularly useful in Islamic cultures, because of the stigma that tends to accompany Western mental illnesses. One study of 30 Bangladeshi patients attending a mental health service in an east London borough found that their family members often felt that jinn possession was responsible<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

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This article is a fascinating look at the connection between certain kinds of mental illness and the different social or cultural circumstances that lead to them: “In Cambodia, for example, it\u2019s commonly believed that the body is riddled with channels that contain a wind-like substance \u2013 and if these become blocked, the resulting wind overdose … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mental illness as a social and cultural artifact”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crsspst_to_mathewingramblogwordpresscom":false,"mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}