In “The Americanization of Mental Illness,” Ethan Watters explains how the documentation for characteristics, causes, and symptoms of mental illnesses outside the West are simply copied out of Western Documentation, and how victims blindly accept the reasons written in Western documentation to explain their illnesses. He argues that “it logically follows, if these disorders are unaffected by culture, then they are surely universal to humans everywhere. In this view, the DSM is a field guide to the world‟s psyche, and applying it around the world represents simply the brave march of scientific knowledge” (Watters 3). However, mental illnesses are born out of certain cultural environments. In this article, anorexia is given as an example, where beauty standards have triggered some people into becoming fat phobic to the point where they suffer from not eating enough. But beauty standards are born out of societal pressures and culture. In the 17th century, rounder women were said to be more attractive, and there were no victims of anorexia nervosa that showed signs of being fat phobic. Instead, cases of anorexia were observed to be born out of “violent Passions of the Mind, the intemperate Drinking of Spirituous Liquors, and an unwholesome Air, by which it is no wonder if the Tone of the Nerves, and the Temper of the Spirits are destroy’d” (Morton). In other words, anorexia could come from poisoning of the mind, which could happen from consuming alcohol or inhaling toxic substances. In modern times however, “By 2007 about 90 percent of the anorexics Lee treated reported fat phobia. New patients appeared to be increasingly conforming their experience of anorexia to the Western version of the disease” (Watters 2). So people are much more likely to cite fat phobia as the cause of their mental illness, but we must not be so quick to assume so because as history has shown, anorexia can be contracted from other factors as well.
Question: Adoption of Western documentation for mental illnesses is strongly caused by victims hearing about Western causes for their illness, and easily accepting it is the same for them. How can we better diagnose mental illnesses such as anorexia nervosa to rely less on the victim’s point of view?
Media: I chose this because this topic got me thinking about this video I saw and although anorexia is a serious problem in all countries where the beauty standard is skinny, I'd like to say for people who are "scary thin" but actually aren't anorexic, different countries have different people with different genetics that allow the body to function healthily under different levels of body fat and nutrition, so what is scary thin to a European woman isn't necessarily scary thin for an Asian woman. So it just goes to show that everything has a nuance to both sides.
Works Cited:
Hallyu Back. Eating Disorders and Thinness in Korea - "LIKE IT" Life in Korea: Experience It (2014, January 19). Retrieved May 7, 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IhotSNumRo
O'Toole, J. (2012, May 22). Anorexia Nervosa Was First Described In Medical Literature Over 300 Years Ago - Kartini Clinic. Retrieved May 07, 2017, from https://www.kartiniclinic.com/blog/post/anorexia-nervosa-in-the-17th-century/
Watters, E. (2010, January 10). The Americanization of Mental Illness. The New York Times.
Retrieved May 4, 2017.
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