title: Primum non nocere. The case for a critical approach to global mental health.
abstract: The Movement for Global Mental Health (MGMH) argues that there is a moral imperative that psychiatric treatments should be made available to all communities across the world. But psychiatric theories, categories and interventions emerged in the Western world are based on a set of assumptions about the nature of the self and society, nature and the supernatural, health and healing that are not universally accepted. In this paper we argue that there is a stronger moral case for caution with regard to the export of psychiatric thinking. Without a critical interrogation of such thinking the MGMH is at risk of doing a great deal of harm to the diverse, and sometimes fragile, systems of care that already exist across the world.
authors: Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery, Bantry General Hospital,Bantry,Co Cork,Ireland.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Bracken
authors: Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery, Bantry General Hospital,Bantry,Co Cork,Ireland.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Giller
authors: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College,London,UK.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Summerfield
mesh_terms: D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D011613:Psychotherapy
keywords: Global mental health; critical thinking; epistemology; reductionism