# 08 - 3 Contributions of the Sociocultural Sciences

# 01 - 3.1 Sociobiology and Ethology

# 3.1 Sociobiology and Ethology

Contributions of the Sociocultural
Sciences
 3.1 Sociobiology and Ethology
SOCIOBIOLOGY
The term sociobiology was coined in 1975 by Edward Osborne Wilson, an American
biologist whose book, which is called Sociobiology, emphasized the role of evolution in
shaping behavior. Sociobiology is the study of human behavior based on the
transmission and modification of genetically influenced behavioral traits. It explores the
ultimate question of why specific behaviors or other phenotypes came to be.
EVOLUTION
Evolution is described as any change in the genetic makeup of a population. It is the
foundational paradigm from which all of biology arises. It unites ethology, population
biology, ecology, anthropology, game theory, and genetics. Charles Darwin (1809–
1882) posited that natural selection operates via differential reproduction, in a
competitive environment, whereby certain individuals are more successful than others.
Given that differences among individuals are at least somewhat heritable, any
comparative advantage will result in a gradual redistribution of traits in succeeding
generations, such that favored characteristics will be represented in greater proportion
over time. In Darwin’s terminology, fitness meant reproductive success.
Competition.
 Animals vie with one another for resources and territory, the area
that is defended for the exclusive use of the animal and that ensures access to food and
reproduction. The ability of one animal to defend a disputed territory or resource is
called resource holding potential, and the greater this potential, the more successful the
animal.
Aggression.
 Aggression serves both to increase territory and to eliminate
competitors. Defeated animals can emigrate, disperse, or remain in the social group as
subordinate animals. A dominance hierarchy in which animals are associated with one
another in subtle but well-defined ways is part of every social pattern.
Reproduction.
 Because behavior is influenced by heredity, those behaviors that
promote reproduction and survival of the species are among the most important. Men

tend to have a higher variance in reproductive success than do women, thus inclining
men to be competitive with other men. Male–male competition can take various forms;
for example, sperm can be thought of as competing for access to the ovum. Competition
among women, although genuine, typically involves social undermining rather than
overt violence. Sexual dimorphism, or different behavioral patterns for males and
females, evolves to ensure the maintenance of resources and reproduction.
Altruism.
 Altruism is defined by sociobiologists as a behavior that reduces the
personal reproductive success of the initiator while increasing that of the recipient.
According to traditional Darwinian theory, altruism should not occur in nature because,
by definition, selection acts against any trait whose effect is to decrease its
representation in future generations; and yet, an array of altruistic behaviors occurs
among free-living mammals as well as humans. In a sense, altruism is selfishness at the
level of the gene rather than at the level of the individual animal. A classic case of
altruism is the female worker classes of certain wasps, bees, and ants. These workers are
sterile and do not reproduce but labor altruistically for the reproductive success of the
queen.
Another possible mechanism for the evolution of altruism is group selection. If groups
containing altruists are more successful than those composed entirely of selfish
members, the altruistic groups succeed at the expense of the selfish ones, and altruism
evolves. But within each group, altruists are at a severe disadvantage relative to selfish
members, however well the group as a whole does.
Implications for Psychiatry.
 Evolutionary theory provides possible explanations
for some disorders. Some may be manifestations of adaptive strategies. For example,
cases of anorexia nervosa may be partially understood as a strategy ultimately caused to
delay mate selection, reproduction, and maturation in situations where males are
perceived as scarce. Persons who take risks may do so to obtain resources and gain
social influence. An erotomanic delusion in a postmenopausal single woman may
represent an attempt to compensate for the painful recognition of reproductive failure.
Studies of Identical Twins Reared Apart: Nature versus Nurture
Studies in sociobiology have stimulated one of the oldest debates in psychology. Does
human behavior owe more to nature or to nurture? Curiously, humans readily accept the
fact that genes determine most of the behaviors of nonhumans, but tend to attribute
their own behavior almost exclusively to nurture. In fact, however, recent data
unequivocally identify our genetic endowment as an equally important, if not more
important, factor.
The best “experiments of nature” permitting an assessment of the relative influences
of nature and nurture are cases of genetically identical twins separated in infancy and
raised in different social environments. If nurture is the most important determinant of
behavior, they should behave differently. On the other hand, if nature dominates, each

will closely resemble the other, despite their never having met. Several hundred pairs of
twins separated in infancy, raised in separate environments, and then reunited in
adulthood have been rigorously analyzed. Nature has emerged as a key determinant of
human behavior.
Laura R and Catherine S were reunited at the age of 35. They were identical twins
that had been adopted by two different families in Chicago. Growing up, neither twin
was aware of the other’s existence. As children each twin had a cat named Lucy, and
both habitually cracked their knuckles. Laura and Catherine each began to have
migraine headaches beginning at the age of 14. Both were elected valedictorian of
their high school classes and majored in journalism in college. Each sister had married
a man named John and had given birth to a daughter in wedlock. Both of their
marriages fell apart within two years. Each twin maintained a successful rose garden
and took morning spin classes at their local fitness center. Upon meeting, each twin
discovered that the other had also named her daughter Erin and owned a German
Sheppard named Rufus. They had similar voices, hand gestures, and mannerisms.
Jack Y and Oskar S, identical twins born in Trinidad in 1933 and separated in
infancy by their parents’ divorce, were first reunited at age 46. Oskar was raised by
his Catholic mother and grandmother in Nazi-occupied Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia.
Jack was raised by his Orthodox Jewish father in Trinidad and spent time on an
Israeli kibbutz. Each wore aviator glasses and a blue sport shirt with shoulder
plackets, had a trim mustache, liked sweet liqueurs, stored rubber bands on his wrists,
read books and magazines from back to front, dipped buttered toast in his coffee,
flushed the toilet before and after using it, enjoyed sneezing loudly in crowded
elevators to frighten other passengers, and routinely fell asleep at night while
watching television. Each was impatient, squeamish about germs, and gregarious.
Bessie and Jessie, identical twins separated at 8 months of age after their mother’s
death, were first reunited at age 18. Each had had a bout of tuberculosis, and they had
similar voices, energy levels, administrative talents, and decision-making styles. Each
had had her hair cut short in early adolescence. Jessie had a college-level education,
whereas Bessie had had only 4 years of formal education; yet Bessie scored 156 on
intelligence quotient testing and Jessie scored 153. Each read avidly, which may have
compensated for Bessie’s sparse education; she created an environment compatible
with her inherited potential.
Neuropsychological Testing Results

A dominant influence of genetics on behavior has been documented in several sets of
identical twins on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Twins
reared apart generally showed the same degree of genetic influence across the different
scales as twins reared together. Two particularly fascinating identical twin pairs,
despite being reared on different continents, in countries with different political systems
and different languages, generated scores more closely correlated across 13 MMPI scales
than the already tight correlation noted among all tested identical twin pairs, most of
whom had shared similar rearing.
Reared-apart twin studies report a high correlation (r = 0.75) for intelligence
quotient (IQ) similarity. In contrast, the IQ correlation for reared-apart nonidentical
twin siblings is 0.38, and for sibling pairs in general, is in the 0.45 to 0.50 range.
Strikingly, IQ similarities are not influenced by similarities in access to dictionaries,
telescopes, and original artwork; in parental education and socioeconomic status; or in
characteristic parenting practices. These data overall suggest that tested intelligence is
determined roughly two thirds by genes and one third by environment.
Studies of reared-apart identical twins reveal a genetic influence on alcohol use,
substance abuse, childhood antisocial behavior, adult antisocial behavior, risk aversion,
and visuomotor skills, as well as on psychophysiological reactions to music, voices,
sudden noises, and other stimulation, as revealed by brain wave patterns and skin
conductance tests. Moreover, reared-apart identical twins show that genetic influence is
pervasive, affecting virtually every measured behavioral trait. For example, many
individual preferences previously assumed to be due to nurture (e.g., religious interests,
social attitudes, vocational interests, job satisfaction, and work values) are strongly
determined by nature.
A selected glossary of some terms used in this section and other ethological terms is
given in Table 3.1-1.
Table 3.1-1
Selected Glossary of Ethological Terms

ETHOLOGY
The systematic study of animal behavior is known as ethology. In 1973 the Nobel Prize
in psychiatry and medicine was awarded to three ethologists, Karl von Frisch, Konrad
Lorenz, and Nikolaas Tinbergen. Those awards highlighted the special relevance of
ethology, not only for medicine, but also for psychiatry.
Konrad Lorenz
Born in Austria, Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) is best known for his studies of imprinting. Imprinting implies that, during a
certain short period of development, a young animal is highly sensitive to a certain stimulus that then, but not at other
times, provokes a specific behavior pattern. Lorenz described newly hatched goslings that are programmed to follow a
moving object and thereby become imprinted rapidly to follow it and, possibly, similar objects. Typically, the mother is
the first moving object the gosling sees, but should it see something else first, the gosling follows it. For instance, a gosling
imprinted by Lorenz followed him and refused to follow a goose (Fig. 3.1-1). Imprinting is an important concept for
psychiatrists to understand in their effort to link early developmental experiences with later behaviors.
Lorenz also studied the behaviors that function as sign stimuli—that is, social releasers—
in communications between individual animals of the same species. Many signals have
the character of fixed motor patterns that appear automatically; the reaction of other
members of the species to the signals is equally automatic.

FIGURE 3.1-1
In a famous experiment, Konrad Lorenz demonstrated that goslings responded to him as
if he were the natural mother. (Reprinted from Hess EH. Imprinting: An effect of an
early experience. Science. 1959;130:133, with permission.)
Lorenz is also well known for his study of aggression. He wrote about the practical function of aggression, such as
territorial defense by fish and birds. Aggression among members of the same species is common, but Lorenz pointed out
that in normal conditions, it seldom leads to killing or even to serious injury. Although animals attack one another, a
certain balance appears between tendencies to fight and flight, with the tendency to fight being strongest in the center of
the territory and the tendency to flight strongest at a distance from the center.
In many works, Lorenz tried to draw conclusions from his ethological studies of animals that could also be applied to
human problems. The postulation of a primary need for aggression in humans, cultivated by the pressure for selection of
the best territory, is a primary example. Such a need may have served a practical purpose at an early time, when humans
lived in small groups that had to defend themselves from other groups. Competition with neighboring groups could
become an important factor in selection. Lorenz pointed out, however, that this need has survived the advent of weapons
that can be used not merely to kill individuals but to wipe out all humans.
Nikolaas Tinbergen
Born in the Netherlands, Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988), a British zoologist, conducted a series of experiments to analyze

various aspects of animal behavior. He was also successful in quantifying behavior and in measuring the power or strength
of various stimuli in eliciting specific behavior. Tinbergen described displacement activities, which have been studied
mainly in birds. For example, in a conflict situation, when the needs for fight and for flight are of roughly equal strength,
birds sometimes do neither. Rather, they display behavior that appears to be irrelevant to the situation (e.g., a herring gull
defending its territory can start to pick grass). Displacement activities of this kind vary according to the situation and the
species concerned. Humans can engage in displacement activities when under stress.
Lorenz and Tinbergen described innate releasing mechanisms, animals’ responses triggered by releasers, which are
specific environmental stimuli. Releasers (including shapes, colors, and sounds) evoke sexual, aggressive, or other
responses. For example, big eyes in human infants evoke more caretaking behavior than do small eyes.
In his later work, Tinbergen, along with his wife, studied early childhood autistic disorder. They began by observing the
behavior of autistic and normal children when they meet strangers, analogous to the techniques used in observing animal
behavior. In particular, they observed in animals the conflict that arises between fear and the need for contact and noted
that the conflict can lead to behavior similar to that of autistic children. They hypothesized that, in certain predisposed
children, fear can greatly predominate and can also be provoked by stimuli that normally have a positive social value for
most children. This innovative approach to studying infantile autistic disorder opened up new avenues of inquiry.
Although their conclusions about preventive measures and treatment must be considered tentative, their method shows
another way in which ethology and clinical psychiatry can relate to each other.
Karl von Frisch
Born in Austria, Karl von Frisch (1886–1982) conducted studies on changes of color in
fish and demonstrated that fish could learn to distinguish among several colors and that
their sense of color was fairly congruent with that of humans. He later went on to study
the color vision and behavior of bees and is most widely known for his analysis of how
bees communicate with one another—that is, their language, or what is known as their
dances. His description of the exceedingly complex behavior of bees prompted an
investigation of communication systems in other animal species, including humans.
Characteristics of Human Communication
Communication is traditionally seen as an interaction in which a minimum of two
participants—a sender and a receiver—share the same goal: the exchange of accurate
information. Although shared interest in accurate communication remains valid in some
domains of animal signaling—notably such well-documented cases as the “dance of the
bees,” whereby foragers inform other workers about the location of food sources—a
more selfish and, in the case of social interaction, more accurate model of animal
communication has largely replaced this concept.
Sociobiological analyses of communication emphasize that because individuals are
genetically distinct, their evolutionary interests are similarly distinct, although
admittedly with significant fitness overlap, especially among kin, reciprocators, parents
and offspring, and mated pairs. Senders are motivated to convey information that
induces the receivers to behave in a manner that enhances the senders’ fitness.
Receivers, similarly, are interested in responding to communication only insofar as such
response enhances their own fitness. One important way to enhance reliability is to

make the signal costly; for example, an animal could honestly indicate its physical
fitness, freedom from parasites and other pathogens, and possibly its genetic quality as
well by growing elaborate and metabolically expensive secondary sexual characteristics
such as the oversized tail of a peacock. Human beings, similarly, can signal their wealth
by conspicuous consumption. This approach, known as the handicap principle, suggests
that effective communication may require that the signaler engage in especially costly
behavior to ensure success.
SUBHUMAN PRIMATE DEVELOPMENT
An area of animal research that has relevance to human behavior and psychopathology
is the longitudinal study of nonhuman primates. Monkeys have been observed from
birth to maturity, not only in their natural habitats and laboratory facsimiles but also in
laboratory settings that involve various degrees of social deprivation early in life. Social
deprivation has been produced through two predominant conditions: social isolation
and separation. Socially isolated monkeys are raised in varying degrees of isolation and
are not permitted to develop normal attachment bonds. Monkeys separated from their
primary caretakers thereby experience disruption of an already developed bond. Social
isolation techniques illustrate the effects of an infant’s early social environment on
subsequent development (Figs. 3.1-2 and 3.1-3), and separation techniques illustrate the
effects of loss of a significant attachment figure. The name most associated with
isolation and separation studies is Harry Harlow. A summary of Harlow’s work is
presented in Table 3.1-2.

FIGURE 3.1-2
Social isolate after removal of isolation screen.
FIGURE 3.1-3
Choo-choo phenomenon in peer-only-reared infant rhesus monkeys.
Table 3.1-2
Social Deprivation in Nonhuman Primates

In a series of experiments, Harlow separated rhesus monkeys from their mothers
during their first weeks of life. During this time, the monkey infant depends on its
mother for nourishment and protection, as well as for physical warmth and emotional
security—contact comfort, as Harlow first termed it in 1958. Harlow substituted a
surrogate mother made from wire or cloth for the real mother. The infants preferred the
cloth-covered surrogate mother, which provided contact comfort, to the wire-covered
surrogate, which provided food but no contact comfort (Fig. 3.1-4).

FIGURE 3.1-4
Monkey infant with mother (left) and with cloth-covered surrogate (right).
Treatment of Abnormal Behavior
Stephen Suomi demonstrated that monkey isolates can be rehabilitated if they are
exposed to monkeys that promote physical contact without threatening the isolates with
aggression or overly complex play interactions. These monkeys were called therapist
monkeys. To fill such a therapeutic role, Suomi chose young normal monkeys that would
play gently with the isolates and approach and cling to them. Within 2 weeks, the
isolates were reciprocating the social contact, and their incidence of abnormal selfdirected behaviors began to decline significantly. By the end of the 6-month therapy
period, the isolates were actively initiating play bouts with both the therapists and each
other, and most of their self-directed behaviors had disappeared. The isolates were
observed closely for the next 2 years, and their improved behavioral repertoires did not
regress over time. The results of this and subsequent monkey-therapist studies
underscored the potential reversibility of early cognitive and social deficits at the human
level. The studies also served as a model for developing therapeutic treatments for
socially retarded and withdrawn children.
Several investigators have argued that social separation manipulations with
nonhuman primates provide a compelling basis for animal models of depression and
anxiety. Some monkeys react to separations with behavioral and physiological
symptoms similar to those seen in depressed human patients; both electroconvulsive

therapy (ECT) and tricyclic drugs are effective in reversing the symptoms in monkeys.
Not all separations produce depressive reactions in monkeys, just as separation does not
always precipitate depression in humans, young and old.
Individual Differences
Recent research has revealed that some rhesus monkey infants consistently display
fearfulness and anxiety in situations in which similarly reared peers show normal
exploratory behavior and play. These situations generally involve exposure to a novel
object or situation. Once the object or situation has become familiar, any behavioral
differences between the anxiety-prone, or timid, infants and their outgoing peers
disappear, but the individual differences appear to be stable during development. Infant
monkeys at 3 to 6 months of age that are at high risk for fearful or anxious reactions
tend to remain at high risk for such reactions, at least until adolescence.
Long-term follow-up study of these monkeys has revealed some behavioral differences between fearful and nonfearful
female monkeys when they become adults and have their first infants. Fearful female monkeys who grow up in socially
benign and stable environments typically become fine mothers, but fearful female monkeys who have reacted with
depression to frequent social separations during childhood are at high risk for maternal dysfunction; more than 80 percent
of these mothers either neglect or abuse their first offspring. Yet nonfearful female monkeys that encounter the same
number of social separations but do not react to any of these separations with depression turn out to be good mothers.
EXPERIMENTAL DISORDERS
Stress Syndromes
Several researchers, including Ivan Petrovich Pavlov in Russia and W. Horsley Gantt
and Howard Scott Liddell in the United States, studied the effects of stressful
environments on animals, such as dogs and sheep. Pavlov produced a phenomenon in
dogs, which he labeled experimental neurosis, by the use of a conditioning technique that
led to symptoms of extreme and persistent agitation. The technique involved teaching
dogs to discriminate between a circle and an ellipse and then progressively diminishing
the difference between the two. Gantt used the term behavior disorders to describe the
reactions he elicited from dogs forced into similar conflictual learning situations. Liddell
described the stress response he obtained in sheep, goats, and dogs as experimental
neurasthenia, which was produced in some cases by merely doubling the number of daily
test trials in an unscheduled manner.
Learned Helplessness
The learned helplessness model of depression, developed by Martin Seligman, is a good
example of an experimental disorder. Dogs were exposed to electric shocks from which
they could not escape. The dogs eventually gave up and made no attempt to escape new
shocks. The apparent giving up generalized to other situations, and eventually the dogs
always appeared to be helpless and apathetic. Because the cognitive, motivational, and

affective deficits displayed by the dogs resembled symptoms common to human
depressive disorders, learned helplessness, although controversial, was proposed as an
animal model of human depression. In connection with learned helplessness and the
expectation of inescapable punishment, research on subjects has revealed brain release
of endogenous opiates, destructive effects on the immune system, and elevation of the
pain threshold.
A social application of this concept involves schoolchildren who have learned that
they fail in school no matter what they do; they view themselves as helpless losers, and
this self-concept causes them to stop trying. Teaching them to persist may reverse the
process, with excellent results in self-respect and school performance.
Unpredictable Stress
Rats subjected to chronic unpredictable stress (crowding, shocks, irregular feeding, and
interrupted sleep time) show decreases in movement and exploratory behavior; this
finding illustrates the roles of unpredictability and lack of environmental control in
producing stress. These behavioral changes can be reversed by antidepressant
medication. Animals under experimental stress (Fig. 3.1-5) become tense, restless,
hyperirritable, or inhibited in certain conflict situations.

FIGURE 3.1-5
The monkey on the left, known as the executive monkey, controls whether both will
receive an electric shock. The decision-making task produces a state of chronic tension.
Note the more relaxed attitude of the monkey on the right. (From U.S. Army

photographs, with permission.)
Dominance
Animals in a dominant position in a hierarchy have certain advantages (e.g., in mating
and feeding). Being more dominant than peers is associated with elation, and a fall in
position in the hierarchy is associated with depression. When persons lose jobs, are
replaced in organizations, or otherwise have their dominance or hierarchical status
changed, they can experience depression.
Temperament
Temperament mediated by genetics plays a role in behavior. For example, one group of
pointer dogs was bred for fearfulness and a lack of friendliness toward persons, and
another group was bred for the opposite characteristics. The phobic dogs were extremely
timid and fearful and showed decreased exploratory capacity, increased startle
response, and cardiac arrhythmias. Benzodiazepines diminished these fearful, anxious
responses. Amphetamines and cocaine aggravated the responses of genetically nervous
dogs to a greater extent than they did the responses of the stable dogs.
Brain Stimulation
Pleasurable sensations have been produced in both humans and animals through selfstimulation of certain brain areas, such as the medial forebrain bundle, the septal area,
and the lateral hypothalamus. Rats have engaged in repeated self-stimulation (2,000
stimulations per hour) to gain rewards. Catecholamine production increases with selfstimulation of the brain area, and drugs that decrease catecholamines decrease the
process. The centers for sexual pleasure and opioid reception are closely related
anatomically. Heroin addicts report that the so-called rush after intravenous injection of
heroin is akin to an intense sexual orgasm.
Pharmacological Syndromes
With the emergence of biological psychiatry, many researchers have used
pharmacological means to produce syndrome analogs in animal subjects. Two classic
examples are the reserpine (Serpasil) model of depression and the amphetamine
psychosis model of paranoid schizophrenia. In the depression studies, animals given the
norepinephrine-depleting drug reserpine exhibited behavioral abnormalities analogous
to those of major depressive disorder in humans. The behavioral abnormalities produced
were generally reversed by antidepressant drugs. These studies tended to corroborate
the theory that depression in humans is, in part, the result of diminished levels of
norepinephrine. Similarly, animals given amphetamines acted in a stereotypical,
inappropriately aggressive, and apparently frightened manner that resembled paranoid
psychotic symptoms in humans. Both of these models are considered too simplistic in
their concepts of cause, but they remain as early paradigms for this type of research.

Studies have also been done on the effects of catecholamine-depleting drugs on
monkeys during separation and reunion periods. These studies showed that
catecholamine depletion and social separation can interact in a highly synergistic
fashion and can yield depressive symptoms in subjects for whom mere separation or
low-dose treatment by itself does not suffice to produce depression.
Reserpine has produced severe depression in humans and, as a result, is rarely used as
either an antihypertensive (its original indication) or an antipsychotic. Similarly,
amphetamine and its congeners (including cocaine) can induce psychotic behavior in
persons who use it in overdose or over long periods of time.
SENSORY DEPRIVATION
The history of sensory deprivation and its potentially deleterious effects evolved from
instances of aberrant mental behavior in explorers, shipwrecked sailors, and prisoners
in solitary confinement. Toward the end of World War II, startling confessions, induced
by brainwashing prisoners of war, caused a rise of interest in this psychological
phenomenon brought about by the deliberate diminution of sensory input.
To test the hypothesis that an important element in brainwashing is prolonged
exposure to sensory isolation, D. O. Hebb and his coworkers brought solitary
confinement into the laboratory and demonstrated that volunteer subjects—under
conditions of visual, auditory, and tactile deprivation for periods of up to 7 days—
reacted with increased suggestibility. Some subjects also showed characteristic symptoms
of the sensory deprivation state: anxiety, tension, inability to concentrate or organize
thoughts, increased suggestibility, body illusions, somatic complaints, intense subjective
emotional distress, and vivid sensory imagery—usually visual and sometimes reaching
the proportions of hallucinations with a delusionary quality.
Psychological Theories
Anticipating psychological explanation, Sigmund Freud wrote: “It is interesting to
speculate what could happen to ego function if the excitations or stimuli from the
external world were either drastically diminished or repetitive. Would there be an
alteration in the unconscious mental processes and an effect upon the conceptualization
of time?”
Indeed, under conditions of sensory deprivation, the abrogation of such ego functions
as perceptual contact with reality and logical thinking brings about confusion,
irrationality, fantasy formation, hallucinatory activity, and wish-dominated mental
reactions. In the sensory-deprivation situation, the subject becomes dependent on the
experimenter and must trust the experimenter for the satisfaction of such basic needs as
feeding, toileting, and physical safety. A patient undergoing psychoanalysis may be in a
kind of sensory deprivation room (e.g., a soundproof room with dim lights and a couch)
in which primary-process mental activity is encouraged through free association.
Cognitive.
 Cognitive theories stress that the organism is an information-processing

# 02 - 3.2 Transcultural Psychiatry

# 3.2 Transcultural Psychiatry

machine, whose purpose is optimal adaptation to the perceived environment. Lacking
sufficient information, the machine cannot form a cognitive map against which current
experience is matched. Disorganization and maladaptation then result. To monitor their
own behavior and to attain optimal responsiveness, persons must receive continuous
feedback; otherwise, they are forced to project outward idiosyncratic themes that have
little relation to reality. This situation is similar to that of many psychotic patients.
Physiological Theories
The maintenance of optimal conscious awareness and accurate reality testing depends
on a necessary state of alertness. This alert state, in turn, depends on a constant stream
of changing stimuli from the external world, mediated through the ascending reticular
activating system in the brainstem. In the absence or impairment of such a stream, as
occurs in sensory deprivation, alertness drops away, direct contact with the outside
world diminishes, and impulses from the inner body and the central nervous system may
gain prominence. For example, idioretinal phenomena, inner ear noise, and somatic
illusions may take on a hallucinatory character.
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Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc; 2011.
 3.2 Transcultural Psychiatry
Culture is defined as a set of meanings, norms, beliefs, values, and behavior patterns
shared by a group of people. These values include social relationships, language,
nonverbal expression of thoughts and emotions, moral and religious beliefs, rituals,
technology, and economic beliefs and practices, among other items. Culture has six
essential components: (1) Culture is learned; (2) culture can be passed on from one
generation to the next; (3) culture involves a set of meanings in which words, behaviors,

events, and symbols have meanings agreed upon by the cultural group; (4) culture acts
as a template to shape and orient future behaviors and perspectives within and between
generations, and to take account of novel situations encountered by the group; (5)
culture exists in a constant state of change; and (6) culture includes patterns of both
subjective and objective components of human behavior. In addition, culture shapes
which and how psychiatric symptoms are expressed; culture influences the meanings
that are given to symptoms; and culture affects the interaction between the patient and
the health care system, as well as between the patient and the physician and other
clinicians with whom the patient and family interact.
Race is a concept, the scientific validity of which is now considered highly
questionable, by which human beings are grouped primarily by physiognomy. Its effect
on individuals and groups, however, is considerable, due to its reference to physical,
biological, and genetic underpinnings, and because of the intensely emotional meanings
and responses it generates. Ethnicity refers to the subjective sense of belonging to a
group of people with a common national or regional origin and shared beliefs, values,
and practices, including religion. It is part of every person’s identity and self-image.
CULTURAL FORMULATION
Culture plays a role in all aspects of mental health and mental illness; therefore, a
cultural assessment should be a component of every complete psychiatric assessment.
The outline for cultural formulation found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is intended to give clinicians a framework for assessing the
role of culture in psychiatric illness. Its purposes are (1) to enhance the application of
diagnostic criteria in multicultural environments; (2) cultural conceptualizations of
distress; (3) psychosocial stressors and cultural features of vulnerability and resilience;
(4) to enable the clinician to systematically describe the patient’s cultural and social
reference groups and their relevance to clinical care; and (5) to identify the effect that
cultural differences may have on the relationship between the patient and family and
the treating clinician, as well as how such cultural differences affect the course and the
outcome of treatment provided.
The outline for cultural formulation consists of five areas of assessment: (1) cultural
identity of the individual; (2) cultural explanations of the individual’s illness; (3)
cultural factors related to psychosocial environment and levels of functioning; (4)
cultural elements of the relationship between the individual and the clinician; and (5)
overall cultural assessment for diagnosis and care.
Cultural Identity of the Individual
Cultural identity refers to the characteristics shared by a person’s cultural group. Identity
allows for a self-definition. Factors that comprise an individual’s cultural identity
include race, ethnicity, country of origin, language use, religious beliefs, socioeconomic
status, migration history, experience of acculturation, and the degree of affiliation with
the individual’s group of origin. Cultural identity emerges throughout the individual’s

life and in social context. It is not a fixed trait of an individual or of the group of which
the individual is part. An individual may have several cultural reference groups.
The clinician should encourage the patient to describe the component aspects of their
cultural identity. Evaluating the cultural identity of the patient allows identification of
potential areas of strength and support that may enhance treatment effectiveness, as
well as vulnerabilities that may interfere with the progress of treatment. Eliciting this
data permits identification of unresolved cultural conflicts that may be addressed during
treatment. These conflicts can be between the various aspects of the patient’s identity
and between traditional and mainstream cultural values and behavioral expectations
affecting the individual. Knowledge of the patient’s cultural identity allows the clinician
to avoid misconceptions based on inadequate background information or stereotypes
related to race, ethnicity, and other aspects of cultural identity. In addition, it assists in
building rapport because the clinician is attempting to understand the individual as a
person and not just a representative of the cultural groups that have shaped the
patient’s identity.
Cultural Explanations of the Individual’s Illness
The explanatory model of illness is the patient’s understanding of and attempt to
explain why he or she became ill. The explanatory model defines the culturally
acceptable means of expression of the symptoms of the illness or idioms of distress, the
particular way individuals within a specific cultural group report symptoms and their
behavioral response to them that are heavily influenced by cultural values. The cultural
explanations of illness may also help define the sick role or behavior the patient
assumes. The explanatory model of illness includes the patient’s beliefs about their
prognosis and the treatment options they would consider. The patient’s explanatory
model may be only vaguely conceptualized or may be quite clearly defined, and it may
include several conceptual perspectives that could be in conflict with one another.
Formulation of a collaborative model that is acceptable to both the clinician and the
patient is the sought-for end point, which would include an agreed upon set of
symptoms to be treated and an outline of treatment procedures to be used.
Difficulties may arise when there are conceptual differences in the explanatory model
of illness between clinician, patient, family, and community. Conflicts between the
patient’s and the clinician’s explanatory models may lead to diminished rapport or
treatment noncompliance. Conflicts between the patient’s and the family’s explanatory
models of illness may result in lack of support from the family and family discord.
Conflicts between the patient’s and the community’s explanatory models could lead to
social isolation and stigmatization of the patient.
Examples of the more common explanatory models of illness include the moral model,
the religious model, the magical or supernatural explanatory model, the medical model, and
the psychosocial stress model. The moral model implies that the patient’s illness is caused
by a moral defect such as selfishness or moral weakness. The religious model suggests
that the patient is being punished for a religious failing or transgression. The magical or

supernatural explanatory model may involve attributions of sorcery or witchcraft as being
the cause of the symptoms. The medical model attributes the patient’s illness primarily to
a biological etiology. The psychosocial model infers that overwhelming psychosocial
stressors cause or are primary contributors to the illness.
Culture has both direct and indirect effects on help-seeking behavior. In many cultural
groups an individual and his or her family may minimize symptoms due to stigma
associated with seeking assistance for psychiatric disorders. Culture affects the patient’s
expectations of treatment, such as whether the clinician should assume an authoritarian,
paternalistic, egalitarian, or nondirective demeanor in the treatment process.
Cultural Factors Related to Psychosocial Environment and Level of
Functioning
An understanding of the patient’s family dynamics and cultural values is integral to
assessing the patient’s psychosocial environment. The definition of what constitutes a
family and the roles of individuals in the family differ across cultures. This includes an
understanding of the patient’s cultural group and its relationship to the mainstream
culture or cultures. It includes the patient’s life experience of racial and ethnic
discrimination. For immigrants and refugees, it includes the individual’s and family’s
perceptions of the openness of the host society toward people of their country and
region of origin, their racial, ethnic, religious, and other attributes. The patient and
family may identify strongly or weakly with communal sources of support familiar from
their country or region of origin, or they may identify along the same gradient with
communal sources of support in the host culture.
Cultural Elements of the Relationship Between the Individual and the
Clinician
The cultural identity of the clinician and of the mental health team has an impact on
patient care. The culture of the mental health care professional influences diagnosis and
treatment. Clinicians who have an understanding of their own cultural identity may be
better prepared to anticipate the cultural dynamics that may arise in interactions with
people of diverse cultural backgrounds. Unacknowledged differences between the
clinician’s and patient’s cultural identity can result in assessment and treatment that is
unintentionally biased and stressful for all. Clinicians need to examine their
assumptions about other cultures in order to be optimally effective in serving the
culturally diverse patient populations that are the norm in most contemporary medical
facilities.
Culture influences transference and counter-transference in the clinical relationship
between people seeking psychiatric care and their treating clinicians. Transference
relationships and dynamics are affected when the patient and clinician have different
cultural background characteristics. A perceived social power differential between the
patient and clinician could lead to overcompliance, to resistance in exploration of

family and social conflict situations, or to the clinician being conceptualized as a
cultural role model or stereotype.
Overall Cultural Assessment for Diagnosis and Care
The treatment plan should include the use of culturally appropriate health care and
social services. Interventions also may be focused on the family and social levels. In
making a psychiatric diagnosis the clinician should take into account principles of
cultural relativism and not fall prone to category fallacy. Many psychiatric disorders
show cross-cultural variation. Objective evaluation of the multiple possible effects of
culture on psychopathology can be a challenging task for the clinician. Diagnostic
dilemmas may arise in dealing with patients of diverse cultural backgrounds. Some of
these dilemmas may include problems in judging distortion from reality, problems in
assessing unfamiliar behaviors, and problems in distinguishing pathological from
normal cultural behavior.
MIGRATION, ACCULTURATION, AND ACCULTURATIVE STRESS
From the time of the first major surge of immigration to the United States in the 1870s,
and for the next 100 years, the predominant national sentiment toward immigrants, as
in most other host countries, was that they should acculturate to the normative
behaviors and values of the majority or mainstream culture of the host population. Most
immigrants had the same wish to assimilate, to become part of the melting pot. This
process of acculturative change can be seen as unidirectional, as individuals who
identified themselves as part of immigrant, indigenous, and other minority groups both
rejected and progressively lost distinctive aspects of their cultural heritage in favor of
becoming part of the mainstream majority culture of the host country. In countries that
encouraged this outcome of acculturation, people were expected to progress from
unacculturated, through the gradient of minimally, moderately, and fully acculturated.
The intensity of acculturative stress experienced by immigrant and other minority
groups, and the individuals comprising those groups, has been directly proportional to
the openness of the host government and population. The central issue is to what extent
are immigrants’ and other minority groups’ customs, values, and differences from the
majority population of the host country accepted, encouraged, and welcomed as an
enrichment of the host country, as opposed to being seen as alien and unwelcome. The
acceptance position encourages the cultural integration of immigrants, whereas the
rejection position encourages either cultural exclusion or cultural assimilation.
In order to assess the outcome of acculturative stress, for groups and their component
individuals, two determining factors need to be considered. The first is the extent to
which the group and its members value and wish to preserve their cultural uniqueness,
including the language, beliefs, values, and social behaviors that define the group. The
second factor is the mirror-image issue of the extent to which the group and its members
value and wish to increase their contact and involvement with other groups, particularly
the majority culture. This conceptual framework leads to four possible outcomes of

acculturative stress that are not conceptualized along the unidirectional gradient from
unacculturated to completely acculturated.
The four possible outcomes are rejection, integration, assimilation, and marginalization.
Rejection is characterized by individuals’ wishes, both conscious and intuitive, to
maintain their cultural integrity, whether by actively resisting the incorporation of the
values and social behavior patterns of another cultural group or groups with whom they
have regular contact, or by disengaging themselves from contact with and the influence
of those other cultural groups. Some religious cults are examples of rejection.
Integration, as an outcome of acculturative stress, derives from the wish to both
maintain a firm sense of one’s cultural heritage and not abandon those values and
behavioral characteristics that define the uniqueness of one’s culture of origin. At the
same time, such individuals are able to incorporate enough of the value system and
norms of behavior of the other cultural group with which they interact closely, to feel
and behave like members of that cultural group, principally the majority host culture.
Accordingly, the defining feature of integration is psychological: It is the gradual
process of formulation of a bicultural identity, a sense of self that intertwines the unique
characteristics of two cultures.
Assimilation is the psychological process of the conscious and unconscious giving up of
the unique characteristics of one’s culture of origin in favor of the more or less complete
incorporation of the values and behavioral characteristics of another cultural group,
usually, but not always, the majority culture. Examples include involuntary migration,
when war and social upheaval necessitate such changes for purposes of survival.
However, there are many other life circumstances, including racial, ethnic, and religious
discrimination, that motivate people to overlook, suppress, or deny aspects of their
cultural heritage in an attempt to have a seamless fit within another group. The price of
such an effort, in terms of intrapsychic conflict, can be high.
Marginalization is defined by the psychological characteristics of rejection or the
progressive loss of valuation of one’s cultural heritage, while at the same time rejecting,
or being alienated from, the defining values and behavioral norms of another cultural
group, usually that of the majority population. This is the psychological outcome of
acculturative stress that is closest to the concept of identity diffusion.
PSYCHIATRIC ASSESSMENT OF IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
Migration History
Mental illness among immigrants and refugees may have been present before
migration, may have developed during the immigration process, such as during months
or years living in refugee camps, or presented for the first time in the country of
immigration. The immigration process and premigration trauma may precipitate the
manifestation of underlying symptoms or result in exacerbation of a pre-existing
disorder. Obtaining a thorough migration history will assist in understanding
background and precipitating stressors and help guide development of an appropriate
treatment plan.

The premigration history includes inquiry about the patient’s social support network,
social and psychological functioning, and significant premigration life events.
Information about the country and region of origin, the family history in the country of
origin—including an understanding of family members who may have decided not to
immigrate—educational and work experiences in the country of origin, and prior
socioeconomic status should be obtained. In addition, premigration political issues,
trauma, war, and natural disaster faced by the patient and family in the country or
region of origin should be explored. For those who had to escape persecution, warfare,
or natural disaster, what were the means of escape and what type of trauma was
suffered prior to and during migration? Traumatic life events are not limited just to
refugees. Immigration may result in losses of social networks, including family and
friends; material losses, such as business, career, and property; and loss of the cultural
milieu, including their familiar community and religious life. Premigration planning
includes reasons for immigrating, duration and extent of planning, premigration
aspirations, and beliefs about the host country. The type of migration experience,
whether as voluntary immigrants or as unprepared refugees, can have profoundly
different effects on migrants’ mental health.
The Mental Status Examination
As with any patient, conducting a mental status examination is a central component of
the psychiatric examination. However, its interpretation in culturally distinct groups
and among immigrant populations requires caution, as it may be culturally biased. The
patient’s response is molded by his or her culture of origin, educational level, and type
of acculturative adaptation. The components of the standardized mental status
examination are the following: cooperation, appearance and behavior, speech, affect,
thought process, thought content, cognition, insight, and judgment. Cultural differences
are wide and varied in dress and grooming. Facial expressions and body movements
used in the expression of affect may be more reflective of normal cultural manifestations
than pathology. If the clinician is unfamiliar with the individual’s culture and the
patient’s fluency in the language of the host country is limited, the clinician must use
caution in interpreting disturbances of speech and thought process, perception, and
affect. The presence of hallucinations, for example, can be easily misinterpreted, such as
hearing encouraging or clarifying comments from deceased family members, normative
experiences in many cultures. The clinician should not assume that the patient
understands what the clinician is trying to communicate, and miscommunication
involving use of interpreters is a common problem. The cognitive examination may be
particularly tricky. Education and literacy have an important and biasing role. The
patient may need adequate time to fully express himself or herself through repeating
questions and restating questions in the effort to reduce miscommunication. Asking
about the meaning of proverbs unfamiliar to the patient may be an inappropriate
means of determining abstract thinking. An accurate mental status examination can be
accomplished when one allows additional time for clarification of concepts.

IMMIGRATION ACCULTURATION AND MENTAL HEALTH
Many countries have had difficulty coping with the surging numbers of migrants. This
has led to greater restrictions on migrant numbers, partly in response to public
sentiment that the social and cultural integrity of the nation has become threatened,
even undermined, by waves of migrants from other countries and cultures. During the
last 10 years, fears of terrorist violence and civil disruption have led many countries to
adopt increasingly restrictive and sometimes punitive policies toward legal and illegal
migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. This trend has been observed in the United
States, in some countries of the European Union, and in Australia.
RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN
THE UNITED STATES
A number of community-based epidemiological studies in the United States have
examined the rates of disorders across specific ethnic groups. These studies have found a
lower than expected prevalence of psychiatric disorders among disadvantaged racial
and ethnic minority groups in the United States. African Americans were found to have
lower rates of major depression in the Epidemiological Catchment Area study. The
lifetime prevalence rates for major depression for whites was 5.1 percent; for Hispanics,
4.4 percent; and for African Americans, 3.1 percent. African Americans, however, had
higher rates for all lifetime disorders combined. This finding of differential rates could
be explained by adjusting for socioeconomic status.
The National Comorbidity Study (NCS) found lower lifetime prevalence rates of mental illness among African Americans
than whites, and in particular mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. The lifetime rates for mood disorders were 19.8
percent for whites, 17.9 percent for Hispanic Americans, and 13.7 percent for African Americans. The National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey-III also found lifetime rates of major depression to be significantly higher among whites, 9.6
percent, than African Americans, 6.8 percent, or Mexican Americans, 6.7 percent. Although African Americans had lower
lifetime risk of mood disorders than whites, once diagnosed they were more likely to remain persistently ill.
NCS rates for anxiety disorders were 29.1 percent among whites, 28.4 percent for Hispanic Americans, and 24.7 percent
for African Americans. The rates for lifetime substance use disorders for the three groups, whites, Hispanic Americans,
and African Americans, were 29.5, 22.9, and 13.1 percent, respectively. Hispanic Americans, and in particular Mexican
Americans, were found to be at lower risk for substance use and anxiety disorders than whites. In an epidemiological study
conducted in Florida, substantially lower rates were observed among African Americans for both depressive disorders and
substance use disorders. The lower rate for substance use disorders was also found in the National Epidemiological Survey
on Alcohol and Related Conditions, with whites having a prevalence rate of 1-year alcohol use disorders of 8.9 percent,
Hispanic Americans, 8.9 percent, African Americans, 6.9 percent, Asian Americans, 4.5 percent, and Native Americans,
12.2 percent. This study also found lower lifetime rates for major depression among Hispanic Americans, 10.9 percent,
compared to whites, 17.8 percent. In 2007, the National Survey of American Life compared rates of major depression
between Caribbean blacks, African Americans, and whites. Although there were no significant differences in 1-year
prevalence between the three groups, lifetime rates were highest among whites, 17.9 percent, followed by Caribbean
blacks, 12.9 percent, and African Americans, 10.4 percent. The chronicity of major depressive disorder was higher for both
African Americans and Caribbean blacks, approximately 56 percent, while much lower for whites, 38.6 percent. This study

was consistent with findings from the NCS that concluded that members of disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups in the
United States do not have an increased risk for psychiatric disorders; however, once diagnosed, they do tend to have more
persistent disorders.
Although African Americans have a lower prevalence rate for mood, anxiety, and
substance use disorders, this may not be the case for schizophrenia. The Child Health
and Development Study found that African Americans were about threefold more likely
than whites to be diagnosed with schizophrenia. The association may be partly
explained by African American families having lower socioeconomic status, a significant
risk factor for schizophrenia.
A more detailed examination of differences across racial groups was included in the
National Comorbidity Study Replication (NCS-R). Non-Hispanic African Americans and
Hispanic Americans were at significantly lower risk than non-Hispanic whites for
anxiety disorders and mood disorders. Non-Hispanic African Americans had lower rates
of substance use disorders than non-Hispanic whites. More specifically, both minority
groups were at lower risk for depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and social
phobia. In addition, Hispanic Americans had lower risk for dysthymia, oppositionaldefiant disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Non-Hispanic African
Americans had lower risk for panic disorder, substance use disorders, and early onset
impulse-control disorders. The lower rates among Hispanic Americans and African
Americans compared to non-Hispanic whites appear to be due to reduced lifetime risk of
disorders, as opposed to persistence of chronic disorders. The researchers concluded that
the pattern of racial-ethnic differences in risk for psychiatric disorders suggests the
presence of protective factors that originate in childhood and have generalized effects,
as the lower lifetime risk for both Hispanic Americans and African Americans begins
prior to age 10 for depression and anxiety disorders. The retention of ethnic
identification and participation in communal, religious, and other activities have been
suggested as protective factors that may decrease the lifetime risk for psychiatric
disorders in close-knit ethnic minority communities. Cultural differences in response to
psychiatric diagnostic survey items may be another possible explanation for these
findings. However, disadvantaged ethnic groups usually overreport in studies measuring
psychological distress, whereas these studies find lower rates.
DISCRIMINATION, MENTAL HEALTH, AND SERVICE UTILIZATION
Disparities in Mental Health Services
Studies, including recent ones, have shown that racial and ethnic minorities in the
United States receive more limited mental health services than whites. Analysis of
medical expenditures in the United States has shown that the mental health care system
provides comparatively less care to African Americans and Hispanic Americans than to
whites, even after controlling for income, education, and availability of health
insurance. African Americans have about a 10 percent probability of receiving any
mental health expenditure, compared to 20 percent for whites. Hispanic Americans are

about 40 percent less likely than whites to receive any mental health expenditure. Total
mental health expenditure for Hispanic Americans is about 60 percent less than for
whites.
In addition, studies conducted over the last 25 years have shown that regardless of
disorder diagnosed, African American psychiatric patients are more likely than white
patients to be treated as inpatients, hospitalized involuntarily, placed in seclusion or
restraints without evidence of greater degree of violence, and treated with higher doses
of antipsychotic medications. These differences are not due to the greater severity of the
disorders between white and African American patients. One hypothesis for this
discrepancy of treatment between African American and white patients is that whites
are more likely to seek out mental health care voluntarily than African Americans, and
African Americans are more likely to enter the mental health care system through more
coercive and less voluntary referral systems. African Americans are also more likely
than whites to use emergency room services, resulting in more crisis-oriented help
seeking and service utilization. Once hospitalized in an institution with predominantly
white staff, African American patients may receive differential care as a result of
discrimination. That is, service personnel who are not familiar with the illness concepts
and behavioral norms of nonwhite groups, tend to assess minorities as more severely ill
and more dangerous than patients of their own racial or ethnic group; consequently,
such patients tend more often than white patients to be hospitalized involuntarily,
placed in seclusion or restrains, and treated with higher doses of antipsychotic
medications.
African American patients assessed in psychiatric emergency services are more likely
to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and substance abuse than matched white patients.
White patients are more often diagnosed with a mood disorder. The cultural distance
between the clinician and the patient can affect the degree of psychopathology inferred
and the diagnosis given. These differences in diagnosis by race have also been found
when comparable research diagnostic instruments have been used for patient
assessment. Semistructured diagnostic instruments based on explicit diagnostic criteria
do not necessarily eliminate racial disparities in diagnostic outcomes. It appears that the
process that clinicians use to link symptom observations to diagnostic constructs may
differ, in particular for schizophrenia, between African American and white patients.
The pattern of psychotic symptoms that predicts a clinician making a diagnosis of
schizophrenia in African American and white patients is different. Among African
Americans patients loose associations, inappropriate affect, auditory hallucinations, and
vague speech increased the likelihood of a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Positive
predictors for white patients were vague speech and loose associations. In addition,
auditory hallucinations are more frequently attributed to African American patients.
African Americans are less likely to have had outpatient treatment and longer delays
in seeking care, and they present more severely ill. The reason for hospitalization was
also different between African Americans and whites. African American patients were
more likely to be admitted for some form of behavioral disturbance, whereas white
patients were more likely to be admitted for cognitive or affective disturbances. In

addition, African Americans were more likely to have police or emergency service
involvement, despite no racial differences in violence, suicidality, or substance use when
assessed. Furthermore, African American patients are more likely, even after controlling
for health insurance status, to be referred to public rather than private in-patient
psychiatric facilities, suggesting racial bias in psychiatric emergency room assessment
and recommended treatment.
African American patients diagnosed with major depression are less likely to receive
antidepressant medications than whites, and less likely to be treated with
electroconvulsive therapy. These findings cannot be explained by demographic or
socioeconomic differences. One explanation may be that there are conscious or
unconscious biases in psychiatrists’ treatment decisions. Although both African
Americans and Hispanic Americans were less likely to fill an antidepressant prescription
when diagnosed with depression, once a prescription was filled, they were just as likely
as whites to receive an adequate course of treatment. These findings indicate that
initiating care for depression is the biggest hurdle in overcoming these disparities.
African American patients have been found to be more likely to be treated with depot
rather than oral neuroleptics compared to whites, after controlling for the type and
severity of illness. When treated with antipsychotic drugs, African Americans are less
likely to receive second-generation antipsychotics than whites, placing them at
increased risk for tardive dyskinesia and dystonia. These differences in antipsychotic
prescribing patterns may be due to physicians’ concern over an increased risk of
diabetes among African Americans compared with whites, or may be due to physicians
perceiving their symptoms differently. Disparities in mental health care for African
Americans and Hispanic Americans have also been noted in studies conducted with
adolescents.
A disparity in prescription drug use for mental illness also has been found among
Hispanic Americans and Asian Indian Americans. From 1996 to 2000, Asian Indian
Americans were found to use prescription drugs 23.6 percent less than whites, whereas
the differences between whites and African Americans and between whites and Hispanic
Americans were 8.3 and 6.1 percent, respectively. Disparities in mental health service
use among Asian American immigrants may be linked to language-based discrimination,
although racial bias cannot be excluded. A study of Chinese Americans found a higher
level of use of informal services and help seeking from friends and relatives for
emotional problems. Those Chinese Americans who reported experiencing languagebased discrimination had a more negative attitude toward formal mental health
services.
Data on racial and ethnic differences in mental health counseling and psychotherapy
are similar to the psychopharmacological studies showing disparities for minorities. A
study examining visits to primary care physicians based on the National Ambulatory
Medical Care Survey from 1997 to 2000 found that primary care physicians provided
similar or higher rates of general health counseling to African American than white
patients. However, the rates of mental health counseling were significantly lower for
African American patients. The lower rate of mental health counseling among African

Americans may be due to decreased reporting of depressive symptoms, inadequate
communication between African American patients and their primary care physicians,
and decreased willingness to discuss mental health issues. On the other hand, another
study utilizing the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2000 found that African
Americans were more likely than Hispanic Americans or whites to receive an adequate
course of psychotherapy for depression. These findings suggest that initiating treatment
is the biggest hurdle, and that once they are engaged in treatment, African Americans
have high compliance with psychotherapy.
RESEARCH IN TRANSCULTURAL PSYCHIATRY
There are three perspectives, among other possible approaches, that offer great promise
for future research in cultural psychiatry. The first would be based on identification of
specific fields in general psychiatry that could be the subject of focused research from a
cultural perspective. Topics of epidemiology and neurobiology could be assessed in this
way. The former would address issues primarily in the public health arena, including
stigmatization, racism, and the process of acculturation. A number of cultural variables
should be considered in conducting cultural psychiatry research, including language,
religion, traditions, beliefs, ethics, and gender orientation.
The second would aim at the exploration of key concepts and/or instruments in
culturally relevant clinical research. There are four key concepts: idioms of distress, social
desirability, ethnographic data, and explanatory models. Idioms of distress are the specific
ways in which different cultures or societies report ailments; behavioral responses to
threatening or pathogenic factors; and the uniqueness in the style of description,
nomenclature, and assessment of stress. Social desirability stems from the similarities or
differences among cultures vis-à-vis the actual experiencing of stressful events. Members
of some cultures may be more or less willing to suffer physical or emotional problems,
thus showing different levels of vulnerability or resignation, resilience or acceptance.
Issues of stigma in different cultural contexts contribute to this level of desirability or
rejection. Third, ethnographic data should be included, together with strictly clinical data
and laboratory analyses or tests, as well as narratives of life that enrich the descriptive
aspects of the condition and expand on the surrounding sociocultural and interpersonal
and environmental aspects of the experience. The fourth concept is explanatory models.
Each culture explains pathology of any kind in its own distinctive way. The explanation
includes not only the presumptive original cause, but also the impact of the adduced
factors and the interpersonal exchanges and interactions that lead to the culturally
accepted clinical diagnosis.
A third approach attempts to combine the first two by examining different areas of
research on the basis of the clinical dimensions of cultural psychiatry. This deals with
conceptual, operational, and topical issues in the field now and in the future, including
their biocultural connections.
Conceptual Issues in Cultural Psychiatry

One of the primary issues in research in cultural psychiatry is the conceptual
differentiation between culture and environment. Although generally accepted as the
conceptual opposite of genetic, environment represents a very broad, polymorphic
concept. It is therefore important to establish that, while perhaps part of that
environmental set, culture and cultural factors in health and disease are terms of a
different, even unique, nature.
To what extent does culture apply to the clinical realities of psychiatry? Culture plays
a role in both normality and psychopathology. The role of culture in psychiatric
diagnosis is an excellent example of this conceptual issue. Furthermore, culture has an
impact on treatment approaches, based on both conventional medical and psychiatric
knowledge, and on the explanatory models. Finally, cultural variables have a role in
prognosis and outcome.
A conceptual debate exists between those who advocate an evidence-based approach
to research and practice, versus those who assign a value-based view to everything
clinical, more so if influenced by cultural factors. The value-based approach invokes
issues such as poverty, unemployment, internal and external migration, and natural and
manmade disasters. Evidence may be found to support both positions in scientific
research.
Operational Issues in Cultural Psychiatry
The dichotomy of normality and abnormality in human behavior is a crucial operational
issue. Culture plays a definitive role in shaping these approaches. This raises the notion
of relativism, a strong conceptual pillar in cultural psychiatry. Normality is a relative
idea; that is, it varies in different cultural contexts.
Another operational issue is that of the choice of cultural variables. Each one has a
specific weight and impact on the occurrence of symptoms, syndromes, or clinical
entities in psychiatry. Some of them may be essential in the assessment of a clinical
topic, namely, language, education, religion, and gender orientation. An additional
operational factor is the description, assessment, and testing of the strengths and
weaknesses of an individual patient. Aspects of an individual’s behavior, attitudes,
disposition, sociability, occupational skills, and other factors are culturally determined.
Culture plays a significant role in the perception of severity of symptoms, the
disruption of the individual’s functionality, and quality of life. The assessment of
severity is also the result of the meaning attributed to causal or pathogenic factors of
psychopathology. Judgments about level of dysfunction and the quality of a patient’s
life involve elusive concepts such as happiness, well-being, and peace of mind.
Research on cultural psychiatry issues needs to take into account representativeness of
the study populations and generalizability of the findings. Methodological rigor needs to
be applied to the collection of demographic data, delineation of and differentiation
between ethnic groups or subgroups, and measurement of demographic variables,
symptoms, diagnosis, and culturally specific constructs.
Many tests and questionnaires used in clinical settings and research have been

# 03 - 3.3 Culture Bound Syndromes

# 3.3 Culture-Bound Syndromes

developed on English-speaking Western subjects and may not be appropriate for use
among ethnic minority patients or non–English-speaking individuals due to lack of
cultural equivalence. Translating items is insufficient to achieve linguistic equivalence,
as the meaning and connotation changes and idioms of expression differ between
languages. In addition, norms also may differ between ethnic groups, and tests need to
be standardized with representative patients.
The complexity of translating an instrument varies depending on how much the
construct being measured differs between the two cultures. There are four different
approaches to translation. An ethnocentric approach is one in which the researcher
assumes that the concepts completely overlap in the two cultures. The instrument is used
with individuals who differ from the population in which the instrument was originally
developed and normed. The pragmatic approach assumes that there is some overlap
between the two cultures and attempts are made to measure the overlapping aspects of
the construct, emic aspects. An emic plus etic approach goes one step further and also
attempts to measure culture-specific aspects of the construct. Lastly, sometimes
translation is not possible when the concepts do not overlap at all within the two
cultures.
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Aggarwal NK. The psychiatric cultural formulation: Translating medical anthropology into clinical practice. J Psychiatr
Pract. 2012;18(2):73.
Biag BJ. Social and transcultural aspects of psychiatry. In: Johnstone EC, Owens DC, Lawrie SM, Mcintosh AM, Sharpe S,
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 3.3 Culture-Bound Syndromes

Cross-cultural mental health professionals have introduced a number of terms to refer to
and describe culture-specific forms of expressing and diagnosing emotional distress. The
term culture bound was used in the past to describe patterned behaviors of distress or
illness whose phenomenology appeared distinct from psychiatric categories and were
considered unique to particular cultural settings. The clear implication was that Western
psychiatric categories were not culture bound, but rather universal, and that proper
characterization would disclose a simple translation key for non-Western syndromes.
The dichotomy between syndromes that are “culture free,” emerging from EuroAmerican and European societies, and those that are “culture bound,” emerging from
everywhere else, is of course patently false. Culture suffuses all forms of psychological
distress, the familiar as well as the unfamiliar.
CULTURE-BOUND SYNDROMES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO
PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES
Only a few of the many cultural forms of expressing distress have received sustained
research attention with integration of cultural and psychiatric research methods. This
chapter focuses on some of those syndromes from diverse cultural regions, which have
received the most intensive research and have been shown to be associated with
psychiatric categories: Amok, ataques de nervios, possession syndrome, and shenjing
shuairuo.
Amok
Amok is a dissociative episode that is characterized by a period of depression followed
by an outburst of violent, aggressive, or homicidal behavior. Episodes tend to be caused
by a perceived insult and are often accompanied by persecutory ideas, automation,
amnesia, and exhaustion. Patients return to premorbid states following the episode.
Amok seems to be prevalent only among males. The term originated in Malaysia, but
similar behavior patterns can be found in Laos, Philippines, Polynesia (cafard or
cathard), Papua New Guinea, and Puerto Rico (mal de pelea), and among the Navajo
(iich’aa).
Phenomenology.
 A prototypical episode is composed of the following elements:
1. Exposure to a stressful stimulus or subacute conflict, eliciting in the subject feelings of
anger, loss, shame, and lowered self-esteem. The stressor usually appears minor in
proportion to the resulting behavior (e.g., argument with a coworker, verbal insult),
but may occasionally be severe (i.e., death of a loved one).
2. A period of social withdrawal and brooding over the precipitating conflict, often
involving aimless wandering, and sometimes accompanied by visual perceptual
alterations.
3. Transition, usually sudden, to frenzied and extremely violent homicidality, with or
without a brief prodromal stage of preparation (e.g., subject may locate preferred

weapon or reach suddenly for whatever implement is available).
4. Indiscriminate selection of victims who may or may not symbolically represent the
original actors in the conflict (e.g., subject attacks only Chinese people who are
strangers to him, after a conflict with a Chinese coworker). Occasionally, the subject
also attacks animals or objects in his path, or wounds himself, sometimes severely.
The subject perseveres at these violent activities despite external attempts to bring
him under control.
5. Verbalizations, when present, may be frenzied and guttural, or express internal
conflict (e.g., ask forgiveness of a relative before killing him) or split consciousness
(e.g., subject admits to a positive relationship with the victim, but denies this for his
“spear”).
6. Cessation may be spontaneous, but usually results from being overpowered or killed.
It is typically abrupt and leads to change in consciousness, usually stupor or sleep.
7. Subsequent partial or total amnesia and report of “unconsciousness” or description of
“darkened vision” (mata gelap) during the acute episode.
8. Perceptual disturbances or affective decompensations may occur for days or weeks
after the acute attack. Psychosis or depression sometimes ensues.
Epidemiology.
 Epidemiological rates of amok in Malaysia and Indonesia are
unknown and may vary regionally and over time. From the available data, amok
appears to follow an endemic pattern in Malayo-Indonesia with some epidemic
increases, the reverse of which has been found for amok-like attacks in Laos.
Amok is essentially unknown in women (only one case was found in the literature,
and it was considered atypical in that no deaths occurred). It is thought to occur more
frequently in men of Malay extraction, Muslim religion, low education, and rural origin,
who are between the ages of 20 and 45 years.
Precipitants.
 Precipitants of amok in Malaysia and Indonesia typically consisted of
experiences eliciting in the subject marked feelings of loss, shame, anger, or lowered
self-esteem. Although specific triggers were very diverse in nature and presentation,
including sudden and gradual stressors, most consisted of interpersonal or social
conflicts superficially appearing to generate only mild to moderate stress. These include
arguments with coworkers, nonspecific family tensions, feelings of social humiliation,
bouts of possessive jealousy, gambling debts, and job loss. Rarely, however, amok was
precipitated by a severe stressor, such as the simultaneous death of the spouse and child
of the subject.
Additional Clinical Features.
 It is unclear whether amok episodes are associated
with indirect suicidal intent on the part of the subject. Anecdotes and cultural views
supporting a connection are available, but interviews with surviving subjects have
tended to refute the association.
Rates of relapse are unknown. It is considered very likely in the popular view, leading

currently in Malaysia to permanent psychiatric hospitalization of surviving subjects,
and, in the past, to banishment or execution.
Treatment.
 Afflicted individuals in 20th-century Malaysia have been exempted from
legal or moral responsibility for acts committed while in a state of amok by means of a
kind of “insanity defense,” which characterizes the attack as “unconscious” and beyond
the subject’s control. They were subsequently hospitalized, sometimes permanently, and
frequently received diagnoses of schizophrenia and were treated with antipsychotic
medication. Alternatively, trials have sometimes resulted in criminal verdicts and
prolonged imprisonment.
Ataque de Nervios
Ataque de nervios is an idiom of distress principally reported among Latinos from the
Caribbean, but recognized among many Latin American and Latin Mediterranean
groups. Commonly reported symptoms include uncontrollable shouting, attacks of
crying, trembling, heat in the chest rising into the head, and verbal or physical
aggression. Dissociative experiences, seizure-like or fainting episodes, and suicidal
gestures are prominent in some attacks but absent in others. A general feature of an
ataque de nervios is a sense of being out of control. Ataques de nervios frequently occur as
a direct result of a stressful event relating to the family (e.g., news of a death of a close
relative, a separation or divorce from a spouse, conflicts with a spouse or children, or
witnessing an accident involving a family member). People may experience amnesia for
what occurred during the ataque de nervios, but they otherwise return rapidly to their
usual level of functioning.
Ataque de nervios (attack of nerves, in Spanish) is a syndrome indigenous to various
Latin American cultures, notably those of the Hispanic Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba,
and the Dominican Republic). It has received considerable attention in the psychiatric
and anthropological literature since the mid-1950s, mostly in Puerto Rican communities
on the island and in populations within the United States.
Phenomenology.
 An ataque de nervios can be described as prototypically composed
of the following elements:
1. Exposure to a frequently sudden, stressful stimulus, typically eliciting feelings of fear,
grief, or anger, and involving a person close to the subject, such as a spouse, child,
family member, or friend. Severity of the trigger ranges from mild-moderate (i.e.,
marital argument, disclosure of migration plans) to extreme (i.e., physical or sexual
abuse, acute bereavement).
2. Initiation of the episode is immediate upon exposure to the stimulus, or after a period
of brooding or emotional “shock.”
3. Once the acute attack begins, rapid evolution of an intense affective storm follows,
characterized by a primary affect usually congruent with the stimulus (such as anger,

fear, grief) and a sense of loss of control (emotional expressions).
4. These are accompanied by all or some of the following:
A. bodily sensations: Trembling, chest tightness, headache, difficulty breathing, heart
palpitations, heat in the chest, paresthesias of diverse location, difficulty moving
limbs, faintness, blurred vision, or dizziness (mareos).
B. Behaviors (action dimension): Shouting, crying, swearing, moaning, breaking
objects, striking out at others or at self, attempting to harm self with nearest
implement, falling to the ground, shaking with convulsive movements, or lying “as
if dead.”
5. Cessation may be abrupt or gradual, but it is usually rapid, and often results from the
ministration of others, involving expressions of concern, prayers, or use of rubbing
alcohol (alcoholado). There is return of ordinary consciousness and reported
exhaustion.
6. The attack is frequently followed by partial or total amnesia for the events of the
episode, and descriptions such as the following for the acute attack: Loss of
consciousness, depersonalization, mind going blank, and/or general unawareness of
surroundings (alterations in consciousness). However, some ataques appear to exhibit
no alterations in consciousness.
Epidemiology.
 Risk factors for ataque de nervios span a range of social and
demographic characteristics. The strongest predictors of ataque are female gender, lower
formal education, and disrupted marital status (i.e., divorced, widowed, or separated).
Ataque sufferers also reported less satisfaction in their social interactions generally and
specifically with their spouses. In addition, people who experienced an ataque de nervios
were more likely to describe their health as only fair or poor, to seek help for an
emotional problem, and to take medications for this purpose. Persons with ataque also
reported deriving less satisfaction from leisure time activities and feeling overwhelmed
more often.
Precipitants.
 Prototypically, ataque de nervios was linked by sufferers to an acute
precipitating event or to the summation of many life episodes of suffering brought to a
head by a trigger that overwhelmed the person’s coping ability. In 92 percent of cases,
the ataque was directly provoked by a distressing situation, and 73 percent of the time it
began within minutes or hours of the event. A majority of first ataques (81 percent)
occurred in the presence of others, as opposed to when the sufferer was alone, and led
to a the person receiving help (67 percent). Unlike the typical experience of persons
with panic disorder, most patients reported feeling better (71 percent) or feeling
relieved (81 percent) after their first ataque. The first episodes of ataque de nervios are
closely tied to the interpersonal world of the sufferer and they result in an unburdening
(desahogarse) of one’s life problems, at least temporarily.
Additional Clinical Features.
 The association between ataque de nervios and a

sense of loss of control and of being overwhelmed highlight the importance of the
association between the cultural syndrome and other behaviors associated with acute
emotional dysregulation. Most concerning among these is the strong relationship
between ataques and suicidal ideation and attempts. Other related behaviors include loss
of aggression control, expressed as attacks on people or property, and dissociative
experiences, both of which are related to the acute ataque experience.
Specific Cultural Factors.
 The complex relationship between ataque de nervios
and psychiatric diagnosis may be clarified in reference to its broader popular nosology.
In the Hispanic Caribbean and other areas of Latin America, ataque is part of a popular
nosology of nervios (nerves), composed of other related categories. Experiences of
adversity are linked in this nosology to ensuing “alterations” of the nervous system,
which result in its impaired functioning, including the peripheral nerves. This quasianatomical damage is evidenced in emotional symptoms, including interpersonal
susceptibility, anxiety, and irritability, as well as in physically mediated symptoms, such
as trembling, palpitations, and decreased concentration.
Treatment.
 No treatment studies of ataque de nervios have ever been conducted.
Typical treatment involves, first, ensuring the safety of the person and those around him
or her, given the association between ataque, suicidality, and uncontrolled aggressivity.
“Talking the person down” is usually helpful, accompanied by expressions of support
from relatives and other loved ones; the use of rubbing alcohol (alcoholado) to help calm
the person is a culturally prescribed way of expressing this support.
“Telling the story” of what led to the ataque usually constitutes the principal
therapeutic approach in subsequent stages of treatment. Because one of the main
functions of the attack is to communicate a feeling of being overwhelmed, indicating
receipt of the message and the desire to offer support are usually perceived as
therapeutic. The person should be allowed to set the pace of disclosure and to give
enough details and circumstances to feel “unburdened” (desahogado[a]).
In the case of single or occasional ataques in the absence of a psychiatric diagnosis,
brief follow-up is usually sufficient. This may be discussed with the patient and the
family as a way of ensuring a full return to the previous healthy state. For recurrent
ataques, treatment depends on the associated psychopathology, the nature of the
precipitants (including traumatic exposure), the degree of family conflict or support, the
social context, the previous treatment experiences, and the patient’s and family’s
expectations, among other factors.
Psychotherapy is typically the mainstay of treatment, given the usual source of the
overwhelmed behavior in the interpersonal milieu. Pharmacotherapy may also be useful
in the treatment of ataque-related psychopathology; primary emphasis should be placed
on treating the underlying disorder. Given the slow crescendo of many ataques, judicious
use of short-acting benzodiazepines also has a role in helping abort an impending
episode. However, this should not be the main form of treatment for recurrent ataques,
since it only forestalls the principal function of the syndrome as a mode of

communication. Instead, psychotherapy and a social activism stance by the therapist
that acknowledges the origins of adversity among low-income Latinos in socioeconomic
disenfranchisement and ethnic/racial discrimination are usually required to address the
interpersonal and sociocultural roots of ataque de nervios.
Possession Syndrome
Involuntary possession trance states are very common presentations of emotional
distress around the world. Cognate experiences have been reported in extremely diverse
cultural settings, including India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia, Niger,
Uganda, Southern Africa, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Brazil, among others. Possession
syndrome is an umbrella English-language term used to describe South Asian
presentations of involuntary possession trance that encompasses multiple names in
regional languages and dialects of India and Sri Lanka. These presentations are seen as
a form of illness by the person’s cultural group because they are involuntary, they cause
distress, and they do not occur as a normal part of a collective cultural or religious ritual
or performance.
Phenomenology.
 It is important to distinguish at the outset between possession
syndrome, as an instance of possession trance, and the broader category of possession.
The latter refers to a general ideology describing the full range of direct spirit influences
on human affairs including effects on physical, psychological, spiritual, social, and
ecological realms. By contrast, as a subset of general possession experience, possession
trance refers to specific alterations in consciousness, memory, behavior, and identity
attributed to direct spirit influence. In addition to pathological possession trance states,
South Asian cultures authorize multiple examples of normal possession and possession
trance. When voluntary and normative, these states are typically seen as instances of
religious devotion, mystical ecstasy, social commentary, asceticism, interpersonal
relations, existential reflection, and the study of consciousness. This chapter discusses
possession syndrome as a pathological entity with an established phenomenology, that
is, as a special case in the general continuum of etiological ideas regarding possession
illnesses. A prototypical episode is composed of the following elements:
1. Onset occurs typically due to subacute conflict or stress and shows considerable
variation. It may be gradual and nonspecific (e.g., diverse somatic complaints, such as
dizziness, headaches, abdominal discomfort, hot-cold flashes, listlessness, or difficulty
breathing) or sudden and specific, in the form of an abrupt transition to an altered
state of consciousness.
2. Behavior during the altered state consists of some or all of the following:
A. Dramatic, semi-purposeful movements, such as head bobbing, bodily shaking,
thrashing, gyrating, or falling to the ground, accompanied by guttural, incoherent
verbalizations, such as mumbling, moaning, or shrieking.
B. Aggressive or violent actions directed at self or at others, including spitting,
striking, and impulsive suicidal or homicidal gestures. Verbalizations may be

coherent and consist of derogatory comments or threats of violence directed
against significant others or against the subject (in the third person) and typically
considered by observers to be uncharacteristic of the subject’s usual behavior.
C. Specific gestures, comments or requests denoting the appearance of a known
possessing personality by (1) reference to standard attributes of culturally
recognizable figures or (2) the name and degree of relation of deceased family
members or acquaintances.
3. In all cases, this state is marked by the emergence of one or several secondary
personalities distinct from that of the subject. Their specific identities, which may
remain undisclosed for some time, adhere to cultural norms regulating permissible
agents of possession, which vary by religion, region, and caste. Acceptable agents
include spirits of deceased family members, in-law relations, or known village
acquaintances who died under specific conditions of distress, and minor supernatural
figures of the Hindu pantheon (rarely major deities) and the Islamic spiritual world.
4. Possession by the secondary personality(ies) is episodic, resulting in alternation
between the usual personality of the subject and the altered state. The subject in his or
her usual identity appears in a daze, exhausted, distressed, or confused about the
situation and may report visual or auditory perceptual disturbances regarding the
possessing agent, as well as “unconsciousness” and partial or total amnesia for the
altered state.
5. Frequently, the specific identities of possessing personalities remain undisclosed for
some time, requiring the active ministrations of family members and the intervention
of specialized indigenous practitioners. The process of disclosure is conceived as a
struggle between the family members and the beneficent agents possessing the healer
on the one side, and the troublesome possessing personalities on the other. It is
characterized by remarkable reactivity on the part of the subject to environmental
cues, including direct questioning, strategic neglect, and aggressive manipulation.
6. Outcome is variable. Total recovery is often reported at the cessation of a single acute
episode, which may be of several weeks’ duration. Alternatively, prolonged morbidity
may result, or even, rarely, death.
Data on the epidemiology, precipitants, and associated psychopathology of subjects
with possession syndrome in South Asia is limited by methodological considerations.
These include lack of representative community samples and nonsystematic definitions
of the syndrome, which shows considerable regional variation.
Epidemiology.
 Possession syndrome is more common in women, with a female-tomale ratio of approximately 3 to 1 in both community and psychiatric cohorts. Age of
onset is usually between 15 and 35 years, but many cases reportedly begin in childhood.
Attacks may persist well into middle age, and geriatric cases have also been reported.
Precipitants.
 Precipitants of possession syndrome are varied but typically consist

of marked social or family conflicts, or stressful life transitions, of subacute duration,
eliciting strong feelings of vulnerability in persons without firm emotional support.
Examples encountered in the literature included marital conflict, abuse, and neglect, at
times associated with alcoholism; arrival of a new bride to the home of her husband’s
family; delay in arranging marriage, or in consummating it; forced marriage;
widowhood; postpartum status; loss of family social standing; death of a family
member; difficulty finding employment and financial difficulties; alienation from family
support; and subordination to other family members and in-laws.
Specific Cultural Factors.
 Possession syndrome constitutes a normative cultural
category throughout India and Sri Lanka. It may present initially in a variety of forms,
linked by the attribution of spirit etiology. When it presents in a nonspecific fashion,
indigenous diagnosis is confirmed by the appearance of the altered state during the
therapeutic ritual. It is considered an affliction by its painful, involuntary nature and
attributed to the intervention of specific spiritual agencies acting independently or at
the behest of a witch. Certain castes and persons in transitional states (e.g.,
puerperium) are considered most vulnerable to spirit attack, especially when deprived
of emotional and material support.
Treatment.
 Specialized indigenous practitioners and ritual therapies are generally
available and widely utilized, but psychiatric treatment is typically avoided. Indigenous
treatments include neutralization of the conflict or stress via the communal rituals
involved in exorcism, as well as the reformulation of the suffering into beneficent
individual and communal practice via initiation into a spirit devotion cult, such as the
Siri cult of South India, or education into the roles of oracle (diviner), exorcist, or,
rarely, avatar (divine incarnation).
Shenjing Shuairuo
Shenjing shuairuo (“weakness of the nervous system” in Mandarin Chinese) is a
translation and cultural adaptation of the term “neurasthenia,” which was transmitted
into China from the West and from Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. Revived in its modern
form by the American neurologist George Beard since 1868, his formulation of
neurasthenia (Greek for “lack of nerve strength”) originally denoted a heterogeneous
syndrome of lassitude, pain, poor concentration, headache, irritability, dizziness,
insomnia, and over 50 other symptoms. It was considered at first an “American disease,”
resulting from the “pressures” of a rapidly modernizing society, but was later adopted
by European diagnosticians. Its pathophysiology was thought to derive from a lowering
of nervous system function on a physical rather than emotional basis, due to excessive
demand on its use, especially among the educated and wealthier classes. In Soviet
psychiatry, buttressed by Pavlovian research, it was a central component of mental
health nosology, which became especially influential in Chinese psychiatry after the
communist revolution of 1949.

Although neurasthenia declined in importance in Western classification systems
during the 20th century, Shenjing shuairuo underwent marked popular and professional
development in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, in Chinese migrant communities,
and in Japan, where a similar syndrome is labeled shinkei suijaku. From a peak in about
1980, when it may have constituted up to 80 percent of all “neurotic” diagnoses in
Chinese 
societies, 
Shenjing 
shuairuo 
has 
undergone 
intense 
psychiatric 
and
anthropological re-examination. Currently, it features prominently in the second edition
revised Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders (CCMD-2-R), under the section on “other
neuroses.” The CCMD-2-R diagnosis requires three symptoms out of five nonhierarchical
symptom clusters, organized as weakness, emotional, excitement, and nervous
symptoms, as well as a fifth category of sleep disturbances. Like other neurotic disorders
in the Chinese manual, the condition must last at least 3 months, and should (1) lower
the efficiency of work, study, or social function; (2) cause mental distress; or (3)
precipitate treatment seeking.
Phenomenology.
 Given the evolution of diagnostic practice regarding shenjing
shuairuo in Chinese societies over the last decades, which may be labeled the
professional approximation of the condition, or its “disease” aspect, phenomenological
description in this chapter is based instead on clinical histories of self-identified
sufferers, or the “illness” aspect of the syndrome. The following elements are
prototypical:
1. Onset is usually gradual, sometimes spanning several years, and typically emerges
out of a conflictive, frustrating, or worrying situation that involves work, family, and
other social settings, or their combination. A sense of powerlessness in changing the
precipitating situation appears central to most illness accounts of the syndrome.
2. Symptoms show substantial individual variation, but usually involve at least some of
the following spontaneous complaints: Insomnia, affective dysphoria, headache,
bodily pains and distortions (e.g., “swelling” of the head), dizziness, difficulty
concentrating, tension and anxiety, worry, fatigue, weakness, gastrointestinal
problems, and “troubled vexation” (,fan nao). This last emotion has been described as
a form of irritability mixed with worry and distress over “conflicting thoughts and
unfulfilled desires,” that may be partially concealed for the sake of preserving social
harmony.
3. The sufferer frequently seeks the sick role, attributing his or her difficulties in meeting
work, school, or other social expectations to the syndrome. Sources of treatment vary
substantially across Chinese communities, depending on the availability of formal and
traditional service sectors.
4. Course is variable and may respond closely to changing interpersonal and social
circumstances. Amelioration of the precipitating stressor(s) typically brings about
substantial improvement, although residual symptoms appear common.
5. Response to treatment may be strongly mediated by the illness role and its

relationship to the intractability of precipitating stressors.
Precipitants.
 Empirical assessment of the precipitants of shenjing shuairuo has
found high rates of work-related stressors, which were made more intractable by the
centrally directed nature of mainland Chinese society. These included unwelcome work
assignments, job postings that caused family separations, harsh criticism at work,
excessive workloads, monotonous tasks, and feelings of inadequacy or incompatibility of
skills and responsibilities. Students usually described less severe study-related
precipitants, particularly school failure or anxiety over the mismatch between personal
or family aspirations and performance. Other interpersonal and family-related stressors
included romantic disappointments, marital conflict, and the death of a spouse or other
relative. Chinese etiological understandings of the syndrome commonly invert the
Western view of “psychosomatic” presentations, whereby social-interpersonal
precipitants cause psychological distress that is displaced onto bodily experience.
Additional Clinical Features.
 Clinical course of the syndrome may depend on
the associated psychiatric comorbidity and on the degree of persistence of the
precipitating stressors. One longitudinal study found complete resolution of shenjing
shuairuo symptoms and good social adjustment 20 years from the index diagnosis in 83
of 89 cases. Only one case was receiving continued treatment, and no subjects reported
the onset of depressive disorder subsequent to the shenjing shuairuo diagnosis.
Chinese psychiatrists have carried out numerous studies of neurophysiological and
cognitive function in shenjing shuairuo patients since the 1950s. Most have reported
abnormalities compared to normal controls, including in tests of polysomnography,
electroencephalography, psychogalvanic reflexes, gastric function, and memory
function. These findings need to be replicated with well-controlled samples using
contemporary diagnostic instruments.
Specific Cultural Factors.
 The evolving definitions of shenjing shuairuo have
emerged from a tradition of syncretism in Chinese medicine between indigenous illness
understandings and international contributions. Nineteenth-century Western notions of
a weakened nervous system due to overuse (neurasthenia) found an ancient cognate
expression in Chinese concepts of bodily meridians or channels (,jing) binding vital
organs in balanced networks along which forces (e.g., qi, vital energy, in yin and yang
forms) could be disrupted from their normal harmonious flow. This gave rise to shenjing
shuairuo, an illness whereby the jing that carry shen—spirit or vitality, the capacity of
the mind to form ideas and the desire of the personality to live life—have become shuai
(degenerate) and ruo (weak) following undue nervous excitement.
Treatment.
 When accessing formal sectors of care, most patients used both
Western-trained physicians and traditional Chinese doctors. Nonpsychiatric medical
settings were preferred, including neurology and general medicine clinics, in concert
with cultural understandings of the somatopsychic etiology of shenjing shuairuo, which

emphasize its physical mediation. The modality of treatment was usually traditional
Chinese medicines, which were prescribed by both Western-trained and Chinese-style
doctors. This conformed to the balanced status still ascribed to both types of training
among Chinese physicians. Polypharmacy was common, combining sedatives,
traditional herbs, antianxiety agents, vitamins, and other tonics. Despite active
suppression of religious healing in China, almost a quarter of patients were also
engaged in such treatment.
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