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arachnophobia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.25
A fascinating set of case studies based in non-Western countries that look at the problems arising from Western uses and constructions of mental illness and treatment. This book stands as one of many pieces of evidence that point to the issues we face as a culture that values individualism, hyperintrospection, a sense of Western superiority, etc.
willowtree3335's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Definitely worth reading because it provides valuable perspectives/ways of thinking about mental health and psychiatry that question conventional narratives which is important, but it may not be researched in the most airtight way and I don’t agree with everything in it. I also don’t like many of the authors opinions/stances outside of the book
zzzzh233's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
!!!!!!!! bro...
stopping ssri as praxis??
stopping ssri as praxis??
val_halla's review against another edition
3.0
This book was divided into four parts, each focusing on a different mental illness that American psychologists are supposedly forcing on the world. I really valued the chapter on schizophrenia, because the majority of it was about a doctor's experience with schizophrenic patients in Zanzibar. Her firsthand studies of what allows mentally ill people to be successfully integrated into society were what earned this book's 3 stars. The other sections, however, were mostly political rants where the author positions himself as the only voice of truth. While I was interested in the marketing of SSRIs in Japan, the tone of the writing was so vitriolic that I couldn't take it seriously. Discussing academics who research these drugs, Watters says on pages 233-4, "In short, no one seemed to be losing any sleep over the ethics of such a luxurious meeting being sponsored by a drug company. No doubt the thread count in the sheets helped in this regard." His attitude made me laugh out loud, because obviously he is making his own profit by writing this book. To pretend that he is above financial incentives really undermines his credibility. There is some good information for medical professional and other caregivers in here, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
orangejenny's review against another edition
3.0
Fascinating subject matter, although it doesn't quite add up to a cohesive book. The introductory pages claim that the book will examine four different situations (mental disorder + location) and make an argument about the negative effects of the increasing global dominance of the American/European approach to mental health. Based on this, I expected to read about how mental disorders are experienced differently in different cultures, and how one culture's approach to treatment can be inappropriate or harmful in another context.
The meat of the book starts out strongly, with a chapter on the rise of anorexia in Hong Kong, on how both the prevalence of the disease and its specific symptoms changed in the 1990s. Watters makes a persuasive comparison with 19th century hysteria and introduces interesting questions: what effect does the medical establishment's understanding of mental illness have on the actual symptoms patients experience? What about the popular understanding of mental illness? Is anorexia a disease in and of itself, or more of a symptom?
From there, things get more uneven. The chapter on PTSD first attacks foreign counselors providing ill-thought-out mental health aid in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, then attacks PTSD itself as being a questionably useful diagnosis and having treatments that can be harmful regardless of the patient's cultural background. So there's a criticism of globalization and a criticism of psychiatry, but not a criticism of the globalization of psychiatry, the supposed topic of the book.
The chapter on schizophrenia in Zanzibar gets closer to the book's thesis, as Watters discusses how the course of the disease is affected by the relationships between patient and caretakers, which are affected by cultural beliefs about the root of mental illness (genetics versus religious spirits). The chapter on depression in Japan also fits fairly well, talking through the personality attributes valued in Japanese versus American society and how this shapes our ideas of which emotional states are disordered. This is mixed with a long tangent on the role of pharmaceutical companies in medical research - a subject worth talking about, but not 100% relevant to globalization.
This book tries to be too many things: a critique of globalization, a critique of some specific aspects of Western psychiatry, and a survey of cross-cultural psychiatry That said, there's more than enough interesting material to make it worth reading.
The meat of the book starts out strongly, with a chapter on the rise of anorexia in Hong Kong, on how both the prevalence of the disease and its specific symptoms changed in the 1990s. Watters makes a persuasive comparison with 19th century hysteria and introduces interesting questions: what effect does the medical establishment's understanding of mental illness have on the actual symptoms patients experience? What about the popular understanding of mental illness? Is anorexia a disease in and of itself, or more of a symptom?
From there, things get more uneven. The chapter on PTSD first attacks foreign counselors providing ill-thought-out mental health aid in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, then attacks PTSD itself as being a questionably useful diagnosis and having treatments that can be harmful regardless of the patient's cultural background. So there's a criticism of globalization and a criticism of psychiatry, but not a criticism of the globalization of psychiatry, the supposed topic of the book.
The chapter on schizophrenia in Zanzibar gets closer to the book's thesis, as Watters discusses how the course of the disease is affected by the relationships between patient and caretakers, which are affected by cultural beliefs about the root of mental illness (genetics versus religious spirits). The chapter on depression in Japan also fits fairly well, talking through the personality attributes valued in Japanese versus American society and how this shapes our ideas of which emotional states are disordered. This is mixed with a long tangent on the role of pharmaceutical companies in medical research - a subject worth talking about, but not 100% relevant to globalization.
This book tries to be too many things: a critique of globalization, a critique of some specific aspects of Western psychiatry, and a survey of cross-cultural psychiatry That said, there's more than enough interesting material to make it worth reading.
gtrue21's review against another edition
informative
3.0
I have complicated feelings about this book. A lot of it was good information. A lot of it also felt insensitive and invalidating? It was interesting but not revolutionary.