Sociocultural Context of Counselling Assignment
Culture and Psychopathology
Radhika Bhat
M2014APCLP012
1. Once culture is eliminated from the diagnostic equation, one loses the capacity to recognize important social and cultural variables involved in the etiology and manifestation of mental disorders. Discuss.
How does one approach the concept of mental illness, and the distinction of abnormal behaviour from normal behavior? Many of the current theories on Abnormal Behavior make this distinction by setting a standard of what is considered normal behaviour with the help of an individual's culture.
The Social Norm Criterion of Abnormality defines abnormal behaviour as any behaviour that violates socially agreed …show more content…
Although not purely a mental disorder, the study of sati provides an opportunity to study how cultural diktats determined the quality and even the length of a woman's life during that time period. Indian culture, being strongly patriarchal, linked a woman's life with that of her husband's. The moment she became a widow, her life lost all meaning and value. A woman's duty to her husband was so strongly emphasized that once he lost his life, it was seen as her duty to sacrifice hers as well. The practice of sati, or self suicide, was often welcomed by women to prove their devotion to their husbands. What is important to note here is how women were seen to have value only in their role as a wife, and once that position was made invalid by the husband's death, the woman's life was seen to have symbolically ended as well. Indeed, the conditions in which widows lived were so harsh that many women chose sati as a means of escape.
The implications of Sati on mental health are numerous-the mental distress that the ritual must have generated in the minds of the woman herself and for her family memebrs would have been considerable. In any culture, the act of suicide is seen as an extreme act resulting from a period of significant mental distress. To enforce the belief that a certain group in society must forcibly commit such an act shows elements of what Edgerton (1992) called “sick societies”- cultures in …show more content…
Frequently, patients appear to be possessed by the spirit of deceased relatives using the patient's body to communicate to their living relatives. Mass possession is especially seen during annual festivals where numerous people appear to get possessed simultaneously. A notable feature of possession is that it has found expression in both the dominant religion in India, i.e.Hinduism, as well as in the minority religions such as Roman Catholicism and even some sects of Islam. The symptoms of possession include tremours, speaking in “tongues”, wailing and displays of extreme emotion.
Individuals with a propensity for spirit posssion are often revered in rural areas, as they are seen to have the ability to communicate with local deities and with the spirit world. However, over time, possession has grown to be looked at as an unfavourable occurance, especially in urban areas, as it involves a great amount of emotional disturbance and loss of control over one's
Culture and Psychopathology
Radhika Bhat
M2014APCLP012
1. Once culture is eliminated from the diagnostic equation, one loses the capacity to recognize important social and cultural variables involved in the etiology and manifestation of mental disorders. Discuss.
How does one approach the concept of mental illness, and the distinction of abnormal behaviour from normal behavior? Many of the current theories on Abnormal Behavior make this distinction by setting a standard of what is considered normal behaviour with the help of an individual's culture.
The Social Norm Criterion of Abnormality defines abnormal behaviour as any behaviour that violates socially agreed …show more content…
Although not purely a mental disorder, the study of sati provides an opportunity to study how cultural diktats determined the quality and even the length of a woman's life during that time period. Indian culture, being strongly patriarchal, linked a woman's life with that of her husband's. The moment she became a widow, her life lost all meaning and value. A woman's duty to her husband was so strongly emphasized that once he lost his life, it was seen as her duty to sacrifice hers as well. The practice of sati, or self suicide, was often welcomed by women to prove their devotion to their husbands. What is important to note here is how women were seen to have value only in their role as a wife, and once that position was made invalid by the husband's death, the woman's life was seen to have symbolically ended as well. Indeed, the conditions in which widows lived were so harsh that many women chose sati as a means of escape.
The implications of Sati on mental health are numerous-the mental distress that the ritual must have generated in the minds of the woman herself and for her family memebrs would have been considerable. In any culture, the act of suicide is seen as an extreme act resulting from a period of significant mental distress. To enforce the belief that a certain group in society must forcibly commit such an act shows elements of what Edgerton (1992) called “sick societies”- cultures in …show more content…
Frequently, patients appear to be possessed by the spirit of deceased relatives using the patient's body to communicate to their living relatives. Mass possession is especially seen during annual festivals where numerous people appear to get possessed simultaneously. A notable feature of possession is that it has found expression in both the dominant religion in India, i.e.Hinduism, as well as in the minority religions such as Roman Catholicism and even some sects of Islam. The symptoms of possession include tremours, speaking in “tongues”, wailing and displays of extreme emotion.
Individuals with a propensity for spirit posssion are often revered in rural areas, as they are seen to have the ability to communicate with local deities and with the spirit world. However, over time, possession has grown to be looked at as an unfavourable occurance, especially in urban areas, as it involves a great amount of emotional disturbance and loss of control over one's