Culture and Mental Health: Sociocultural Influences, Theory, and Practice

Citation

(2009), "Culture and Mental Health: Sociocultural Influences, Theory, and Practice", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2009.06222dae.002

Culture and Mental Health: Sociocultural Influences, Theory, and Practice

Culture and Mental Health: Sociocultural Influences, Theory, and Practice

Article Type: Recent publications From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 22, Issue 4

Please note that unless expressly stated, these are not reviews of titles given. They are descriptions of the books, based on information provided by the publishers.

Edited by Sussie Eshun and Regan A.R. Gurung,Wiley-Blackwell,ISBN: 978-1-4051-6982-0,January 2009

Keywords: Psychological disorder management, Mental healthcare research, Mental healthcare and culture

Culture and Mental Health takes a critical look at the research pertaining to common psychological disorders, examining how mental health can be studied from and vary according to different cultural perspectives.

The book introduces students to the main topics and issues in the area of mental health using culture as the focus. It emphasizes issues that pertain to conceptualization, perception, health-seeking behaviors, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment in the context of cultural variations. The book also reviews and actively encourages the reader to consider issues related to reliability, validity and standardization of commonly used psychological assessment instruments among different cultural groups. The authors highlight the widely used DSM-IV-TR categorization of culture-bound syndromes.

Contents include:

1. 1.

   General issues in culture and mental health:

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     introduction to culture and psychopathology;

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     culture and mental health;

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     stress and mental health;

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     managing job stress;

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     chronic pain: cultural sensitivity to pain;

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     placing the soul back into psychology: religion in the psychotherapy process;

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     psychotherapy in a culturally diverse world; and

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     international perspectives on culture and mental health.

2. 2.

   Cross-cultural issues in specific psychological disorders:

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     culture and mood disorders;

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     culture and anxiety disorders;

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     cultural factors in traumatic stress;

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     culture and psychotic disorders;

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     culture and eating disorders; and

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     culture and suicide.