Saturday, October 28, 2017

Week 6 - Chelsea Reyes A02

The reading by Ethan Watters about the Americanization of mental illness really sheds light on how other countries put forth American research over their own country's.  This really showed in the text's example of work done by Dr. Sing Lee in Hong Kong. It was interesting how he had patients who seemed to have a specific form of anorexia nervosa that was only seen with his patients in that area, yet their symptoms were quit different from the American version of that disorder. I do believe that different regions/areas will have different symptoms/disorders.  In the case of Dr. Lee's patients, many of his patients shared a similar symptom of not expressing fear of becoming fat and also having bloated stomachs. After an incident where an anorexic girl fainted and died on the street, newspaper went with information about anorexia from American studies and sites. After that, more women went to Dr. Lee with symptoms that matched up to the American idea of this mental illness. This example really shows how much influence America has on mental illness across the world. American culture is very different from culture in Hong Kong, for example. Dr. Lee's patients did not show signs of fear of being fat, but after that girl passed away, more patients said fat phobia was the most important reason for starving themselves. This Americanization of anorexia brought upon symptoms that patients didn't even have prior to the incident. This just goes on to show how highly people see American studies and research, going so far as to use it to explain mental illness in other countries when they are totally different.


Question: What other factors (other than culture) could explain the difference in viewpoints of mental illnesses?



References:



Watters, E. (2010, January 10). The Americanization of Mental Illness. The New York Times.

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