Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
#: 032
Dr. Omar Al-Dewachi
a culture across time can force a shift in the GMH field by the reevaluation of
DSM definitions. It is thus reasonable to assume that horizontal differences
across cultures should also be critically assessed and integrated into the
foundations on which the GMH field was built if a holistic approach to dealing
with mental health issues worldwide is to be attained.
Due to the monopolization of the GMH movement by western thought
and practices, its application in non-western conditions has been met with
vehement opposition. Under urgent situations, such as tsunamis,
earthquakes, civil wars, etc , western psychologists deployed by UN
agencies and NGO assign the psychological dimensions of the problem at
hand as well as the method of carrying out interventions and treatment with
negligible consideration to local practices (5). Marcella describes the
previously stated as a tyranny of western expertise whereby the dynamics
of the situation are orchestrated by subtle power struggles and the implied
assumption that western knowledge is superior to local knowledge (5).
Furthermore, by dismissing local treatments as primitive and irrational,
psychologists are inadvertently promoting GMH as a form of medical
imperialism or neo-colonialism (6). In support of her claims of
neocolonialism in GMH, Tribe describes how certain documents like the DSM,
a product of western thought, is applied uncritically as a de-contextualized
reference for appropriate research, diagnosis, and treatment of mental
disorders on the global stage (6). This homogenization of medical practice
runs the risk of abolishing hidden jewels of local knowledge that might be
1. Prince, M., Patel, V., Saxena, S., Maj, M., Maselko, J., Phillips, M., &
Rahman, A. (2007). No health without mental health. The Lancet,
370(9590), 859-877.
2. Mental disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16, 2015, from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs396/en/
3. Patel, V., & Prince, M. (n.d.). Global Mental Health: A New Global Health
Field Comes Of Age. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical
Association, 1976-1977.
4. Hanna, B., & Kleinman, A. (2013). Unpacking Global Health. In
Reimagining Global Health. University of California Press.
5. Marsella, A. (2010). Ethnocultural Aspects of PTSD: An Overview of
Concepts, Issues, and Treatments. Traumatology, 16(4), 17-26.
6. Tribe, Rachel. "Culture, Politics and Global Mental Health." Disability
and the Global South (2014): 251-65. Print.
7. Ethan Watters, The wave that brought PTSD to Sri Lanka, 2010.
8. Madrigal, A. (2011, September 14). The Dark Side of the Placebo
Effect: When Intense Belief Kills. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/the-dark-side-ofthe-placebo-effect-when-intense-belief-kills/245065/