Culture plays a crucial role in determining the livelihoods of humans in the contemporary world. Traditional rituals like healing ceremonies are useful in certain communities that are primarily conservative of their culture. Some therapies used in contemporary society to counter the adverse effects of mental or physical illnesses differ from healing methods used in traditional societies. For instance, transient psychosis with full recovery is comparatively rare in modern cultures than in premodern cultures (Castillo, 2016). Considerable differences also exist in modern societies regarding the implication of culture on the treatment of psychosis. This paper discusses the similarities and differences between the Indian and American cultures in how they affect the subjective experiences and types of treatments afforded to people with mental-related disorders.
The Indian and American societies have some relation when it comes to cultural beliefs in diagnosing and treating mental-related disorders. In India, most of the psychosis patients were healed through cultural means both traditionally and in the pre-modern times. Also, cultural treatment has been applied in modern times to patients of mental illnesses. Both America and Indian employ the strategy of asking questions to the patient to establish the leading cause of such disorder. The Indian culture attributes most of such diseases to non-medicinal causes such as spiritual possession. Similarly, American culture relates mental disorder to reasons other than those known to cause physical harm.
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Notable differences exist between the Indian and American cultures regarding the recovery of people with mental health conditions. For instance, American mental patients who are critically ill are taken to the hospital (Rouselle, 2016). On the other hand, ScoopWhoop’s (2016) video does not support this as most of the evil possessed patients in India are taken to the highest court for spirits for healing by ritual priests. Another difference is that the cause of mental-related illnesses in India is mainly evil spirits while in America, most are caused by happenings of past events. Apart from that, modern medicine is mainly used to cure people with mental health conditions in America while cultural rituals such as exorcizing evil spirits by fire are used in India. Consequently, the Indian culture, sometimes, instils pain to the recovering patient such as when they are subjected to fire and physical beating. On the contrary, American mental patients are treated in a modernized way such as being soothed to avoid distress.
It is evident that the Indian and American societies differ significantly when it comes to the effect of culture on subjective experiences and types of treatments for mental patients. Local cultural practices play a key role in influencing the differences in both traditional and premodern cultures (Castillo, 2006). The influence of culture is mainly dictated by the causes of such disorders. It is believed that cultural therapies are more effective than contemporary ones about eliminating mental diseases. Therefore, there is a need to employ cultural perspectives when it comes to the causes of mental illnesses and their treatment.
References
Castillo, R. J. (2006). Effects of culture on recovery from transient psychosis. Psychiatric times , 23 (14), 46-48.
Rousselle, J. (2016, June 13). Bellevue: Inside Out [Video file] . Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz3Xj_PIF3g
ScoopWhoop (2016, May 11). Demonic Possession: An Inside Story [Video file] . Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH8rG4Jn5xU
