title: De Martino's concept of critical ethnocentrism and its relevance to transcultural psychiatry.
abstract: Ethnography and hermeneutics help us think of the clinical encounter as a meeting of cultures. In this paper, we examine Ernesto De Martino's concept of critical ethnocentrism and its relevance for psychiatry, arguing for the necessity of a cultural self-assessment on the part of the clinician as a means of optimizing analyses of the patient's culture. Conceptualizing the clinician as an "ethnologist," we argue that clinicians should be able to describe and acknowledge patients' cultural backgrounds, while remaining aware of their own culturally rooted prejudices. Focusing on the case of persons affected by schizophrenia, we suggest that De Martino's work invites an openness to hermeneutic dialogue that aims for the coconstruction of shared narratives by clinician and patient.
authors: G. D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and Universidad Diego Portales. giostan@libero.it
authors: Giovanni
authors: G
authors: Stanghellini
authors: Raffaella
authors: R
authors: Ciglia
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000379:methods*; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005008:Ethnopsychology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012559:Schizophrenia; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology