Crazy Like Us by Ethan Watters hits on the point that the globalization of the DSM and Western symptoms and diagnosis’s of mental illnesses has contributed to the elimination of cultural diversity in almost everything from McDonalds to mental health issues, as seen in the chapters The Rise of Anorexia in Hong Kong and The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan. Watters tells of his personal exploration and research into this elimination of cultural diversity. Dr. Sing Lee was the first to document anorexia in Chinese women and tells of his experience with the globalization of the DSM and the effect that it has had in anorexic Chinese women. Also Dr. Laurence Kirmayer gives first-hand experience with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and
…show more content…
This chapter talks about the unacceptance of depression in Japan and how Big Pharma and mega pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline brought depression and its cures into the Japanese culture. Dr. Laurence Kirmayer had first-hand experience with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and their marketing of the antidepressant pill Paxil in Japan. GlaxoSmithKline did not and could not just introduce antidepressant medication into Japan. Japanese people would not accept the drug and more specifically, would not accept the disease. The Japanese had a different conception of depression than in the West. “The term for depression in Japan is utsubyo, what it described was a mental illness that was as chronic and devastating as schizophrenia…Sales prospects of Paxil in Japan were almost nonexistent because utsubyo was considered a rare disorder” (Watters, E. 2010). Because of this GlaxoSmithKline needed a deep and advanced understanding of how those beliefs had come about, in order to shift the public’s perception about the meaning of depression. The suicide rate in Japan was an indicator of undertreated depression. “In the culture though suicide was accepted, excused, and admired as a brave act and an expression of purity of the Japanese character, freeing your mind of modernity” (Watters, E. 2010). A melancholic personality was a prized trait and was something to aspire to because it was seen as …show more content…
“Depression, they repeated in advertising and promotional material, was kokoro no kaze, like “a cold of the soul.”… it appealed to the drug marketers” (Watters, E. 2010), it implied that utsubyo wasn’t a sever condition, to take the medication for depression should be compared to buying cough medicine to cure a cold, and also like the cold, depression was ubiquitous. They also encouraged people to seek professional help for depression. “The marketing campaign has been in many ways too successful. The slogan, depression is like a ‘cold of the soul’, has convinced far too many people to seek medical treatment for something that is often not an illness” (Watters, E. 2010). The Western definition and symptom list for depression, due to the DSM, had planted its roots and gained ground in Japan. “By 2008 sales of Paxil were over one billion dollars per year in Japan” (Watters, E. 2010). What later came out about the these selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI)was that these companies were actually hiding results, such that “the drug had an eightfold increase in the risk of suicidality and that only one in ten test subjects showed a positive response that can be attributed to the effect of the SSRI” (Watters, E.
This chapter talks about the unacceptance of depression in Japan and how Big Pharma and mega pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline brought depression and its cures into the Japanese culture. Dr. Laurence Kirmayer had first-hand experience with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and their marketing of the antidepressant pill Paxil in Japan. GlaxoSmithKline did not and could not just introduce antidepressant medication into Japan. Japanese people would not accept the drug and more specifically, would not accept the disease. The Japanese had a different conception of depression than in the West. “The term for depression in Japan is utsubyo, what it described was a mental illness that was as chronic and devastating as schizophrenia…Sales prospects of Paxil in Japan were almost nonexistent because utsubyo was considered a rare disorder” (Watters, E. 2010). Because of this GlaxoSmithKline needed a deep and advanced understanding of how those beliefs had come about, in order to shift the public’s perception about the meaning of depression. The suicide rate in Japan was an indicator of undertreated depression. “In the culture though suicide was accepted, excused, and admired as a brave act and an expression of purity of the Japanese character, freeing your mind of modernity” (Watters, E. 2010). A melancholic personality was a prized trait and was something to aspire to because it was seen as …show more content…
“Depression, they repeated in advertising and promotional material, was kokoro no kaze, like “a cold of the soul.”… it appealed to the drug marketers” (Watters, E. 2010), it implied that utsubyo wasn’t a sever condition, to take the medication for depression should be compared to buying cough medicine to cure a cold, and also like the cold, depression was ubiquitous. They also encouraged people to seek professional help for depression. “The marketing campaign has been in many ways too successful. The slogan, depression is like a ‘cold of the soul’, has convinced far too many people to seek medical treatment for something that is often not an illness” (Watters, E. 2010). The Western definition and symptom list for depression, due to the DSM, had planted its roots and gained ground in Japan. “By 2008 sales of Paxil were over one billion dollars per year in Japan” (Watters, E. 2010). What later came out about the these selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI)was that these companies were actually hiding results, such that “the drug had an eightfold increase in the risk of suicidality and that only one in ten test subjects showed a positive response that can be attributed to the effect of the SSRI” (Watters, E.