Navigating diagnoses: understanding mind-body relations, mental health, and stigma in Nepal.
Anthropologists and psychiatrists traditionally have used the salience of a mind-body dichotomy to distinguish Western from non-Western ethnopsychologies. However, despite claims of mind-body holism in non-Western cultures, mind-body divisions are prominent in non-Western groups. In this article, we discuss three issues: the ethnopsychology of mind-body dichotomies in Nepal, the relationship between mind-body dichotomies and the hierarchy of resort in a medical pluralistic context, and, finally, the role of mind-body dichotomies in public health interventions (biomedical and psychosocial) aimed toward decreasing the stigmatization of mental illness. We assert that, by understanding mind-body relations in non-Western settings, their implications, and ways in which to reconstitute these relations in a less stigmatizing manner, medical anthropologists and mental health workers can contribute to the reduction of stigma in global mental health care.
Kohrt
Brandon A
BA
Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. brandonkohrt@gmail.com
Harper
Ian
I
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D009390:Nepal; D011603:Psychophysiology
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