title: West meets east: cross-cultural issues in inpatient treatment.
abstract: The authors analyze the role of culture and its influence on the inpatient psychiatric treatment setting through an examination of the contrasting beliefs and assumptions of the Euro-American and Arabic-Islamic traditions. Three case vignettes illustrate the form and impact of these contrasts on various aspects of the cross-cultural encounter when Arab patients are treated in a Western psychodynamically informed hospital setting. The impact of the culture of origin on both treaters and patients is examined. These observations can also be extrapolated to other significant cross-cultural encounters within the hospital setting. Cultural differences may contribute to either a mismatch of expectations or to a creative accommodation of them on the part of both patients and treaters.
authors.affiliation: Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas 66601-0829, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sayed
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D018912:Arabs / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D003144:Communication Barriers; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D008877:Middle East; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D019366:Western World