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The discussion of the role of culture in mental illness struck me as a fairly circular argument. Culture creates the normal, those who violate the normal are mentally ill, if we change culture we change the normal and thus change what we view as mental illness. What was more interesting to me were the so-called “nontraditional” approaches to mental healthcare such as the way an African tribe viewed schizophrenia as a demonic possession and not an illness of that particular person. This allowed the person’s symptoms to be treated without any sort of judgment about the actual patient. The author argued this was beneficial in that these person’s were able to easily re-enter community life in times of remission and thus suffered none of the socio-cultural isolation and stigmatization that is such an issue in westernized mental healthcare.   Interestingly, it seems that our own mental health establishment has possessed these notions many years ago when “a cruise around the world” was the preferred treatment for depression. 

                These two seemingly unrelated treatments are really the same idea, rather than focus all interventions on changing the disorder; these treatments instead change what is “normal”. Instead of bending patients to fit society these societies bend to fit their patients. This approach requires a very active “population” which has the motivation and flexibility to accommodate the differing needs of its members but that does not necessarily make it a dead end for modern treatment. I am not quite sure how this methodology could be integrated with modern care but perhaps some form of family training should accompany an individual’s recovery plan. Especially in disorders such as schizophrenia where the emotional affect style of a patient’s family has been shown to play such a role in relapse rates it is crucial that the treatment extend beyond just the patient.