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alicia03n09's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Although the discussion of some disorders and cases lacks nuance, particularly in the eating disorder chapter, I found this book very interesting and eye-opening to the various ways in which the West influences mental health experiences and treatments all over the world. I particularly appreciated the distinction between the hyper-introspection and hyper-individualism vs. the conceptualisations of the mind in terms of religious, cultural, ecological and social levels.
margyly's review against another edition
5.0
Not only does America export a crazy-making culture, we infect other cultures with our mental health diagnoses so as to create mental illnesses in cultures that didn’t have them. Fascinating and sad. Our daughter is in Brazil studying attitudes toward mental illness and treatments among Candomblé practitioners in the Northeast of Brazil. Is she part of the problem or of the solution?
ammmiiiii's review
2.0
A very interesting theory/concept, however explored in a rather shallow way and anecdotal manner by the author. Although included at the end of the book, lack of in-text references makes doing further reading difficult. Watters writes in a very biased, binary way, and, up until the very last page, entirely ignores the promising advances made by and countless lives saved by modern psychiatry.
liberrydude's review
3.0
Pretty interesting take on more American imperialism-selling our knowledge overseas and insisting our experience is the only answer. We visit Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Japan each with unique maladies in which Western learning has had marginal or even harmful effects. The last chapter on Japan was too long. The author is even married to a psychologist or psychiatrist but this book is really in the domain of anthropology and it's quite fascinating. Western mental health sounds like the Western Diet, not for everyone.
everything_was_beautiful's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.75
sarahdenn27's review
5.0
Completely mind-blowing and eye-opening. I've recently become interested in the idea that hey maybe the modern psychiatry industry isn't some perfect and wholesome thing that we're led to believe it is. No, there are clear issues and plenty of pseudoscience being sold as real science. This book was shocking at first but actually made a lot of sense. Of course, we think we're the best and we know what's right, but do we really? This makes me reconsider everything I've been taught as "fact" within my psych major, as so much of it really can't be proven at all and has been manipulated by someone or other who has a vested interest in benefiting from the industry.
bootman's review
5.0
As someone who reads a ton of psychology books and books about mental health, I have no clue how I never came across this book. This book is so important, and Ethan Watters did a phenomenal job. Watters highlights the fact that not only do we tend to pathologize everything in the United States, but we completely neglect that different countries and cultures address mental health in a different way. I used to think we don’t talk about mental health enough, but now it feels like we talk about it too much, and every person is being diagnosed with a different illness. While disorders are very real, this book really shows that sometimes we’re sold on the idea that we’re “supposed” to have certain symptoms after different events or “should” be a certain way.
I don’t know what it’s going to take to get this book out to more people, but I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who cares about the conversations around mental health.
I don’t know what it’s going to take to get this book out to more people, but I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who cares about the conversations around mental health.
ari__s's review
4.0
I struggled with the lack of person-first language in this book; however, overall, it raises important points and may arguably be a text from which required readings should be assigned to all mental health-services students.