Navigating diagnoses: Understanding mind-body relations, mental health, and stigma in Nepal

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

12-1-2008

Journal

Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry

Volume

32

Issue

4

DOI

10.1007/s11013-008-9110-6

Keywords

Ethnopsychiatry; Mind-body dichotomies; Nepal; Psychosocial; Stigma

Abstract

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. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

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