Crazy Like Us: The Globalization Of The American Psyche (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
As a thought-provoking essay on how we need to rethink the global exportation of our culturally constrained mental health disorders and treatment, this book excels. It brings up some excellent points about the assumptions we make, the arrogance of our beliefs about the superiority of our own mental health system, the imperialistic nature of forcing those ideas on others, and the absolute necessity to take cultural practices and beliefs into account when working outside our own. It also raises concerns about our own research-based practice and whether it's generalizable to other groups of people. However, I also had some concerns about the way in which this material is presented. It's almost entirely anecdotal, which, while compelling, makes me wonder whether he's cherry-picking his stories to tell. There are conflicting accounts out there about each of these issues, and they're conspicuously absent. I also worry that the portrayal of mental health disorders as a byproduct of American culture may actually have the opposite of the intended effect, and increase stigmatization - as this portrayal in some ways makes them seem less "real." Finally, I was somewhat surprised that most of his anecdotal evidence comes from outside researchers who have come in and spent time in each of these areas - I wanted to hear more from the people actually living in these places and experiencing these changes. i'm not a huge fan of the writing style, which is journalistic and repetitive, but the political points here are worth exploring in depth. from the Anorexia in Hong Kong chapter we learn that perhaps people's disorders are consciously and subconsciously drawn from a "symptom pool" that people in a particular culture are familiar with and able to identify. for example, women in the West (and increasingly everywhere) starving themselves may actually be an attempt to get attention and support, or die trying. we understand Anorexia, so it's one avenue women can go down in order to be noticed or perhaps understood. and this avenue is being promoted through Western media pop culture to the rest of the world.from the PTSD in Sri Lanka chapter we learn that there is an entire industry of mental health professionals who travel from one disaster or crisis to another, trying to convince local people that they now have PTSD or some other Western illness, and the only way to treat such a disorder is through Western means. whereas local people may have their own ways of responding to tragedy that are more deeply rooted and culturally specific, this crisis-response industry sees such traditions as backwards and obsolete obstacles to be trampled under the weight of the DSM.the Schizophrenia in Zanzibar chapter perhaps presents the most thought-provoking and difficult questions. when we label someone as "mentally ill," what do we do to that person's view of themselves? what do we do to the way people around that person will view that person? isn't it inherently stigmatizing to say that someone has a "chemical imbalance," or essentially that their brain is broken? and if so, is it perhaps better to rely on traditional explanations, such as that your friend or family member is being haunted by spirits or demons, and therefore that they have a problem and need some attention but are not a bad or scary person by nature? what explanation makes you more likely to want to stop talking to someone or have them locked in an institution? which explanation makes you more likely to want to bring them some soup or tea and maintain a relationship, or even strengthen your relationship?the final chapter is the most straightforward and follows what you'd expect from a book called "The Globalization of the American Psyche." it follows how in the 1990s drug companies like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline enlisted cultural "experts" as well as the academic-medical industry to craft mega-marketing campaigns that would convince the Japanese that they were depressed and needed to buy pharmaceutical drugs to feel better. this is all predictable and unsurprising, but it is interesting how doctors and professors are so easily bought-off by expensive trips and hotel visits to say or write almost anything that corporate execs want them to. how corrupt is academia exactly?
What do You think about Crazy Like Us: The Globalization Of The American Psyche (2010)?
This is so readable, convincing and disturbing. I know I'll be recommending it to lots of people.
—lizziecheesy
