Debating the first principles of transcultural psychiatry

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Transcultural psychiatry is the part of psychiatry concerned with cultural factors in the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. It may also be known as "cultural psychiatry" or "cross-cultural psychiatry". It is a field in which medical science and the humanities (particularly anthropology) have collaborated since the post-war period, and it is growing in importance because of the encounter, diffusion, and mingling of cultures through globalising forces such as migration and the mass media. This project cultivates critical reflection upon the first principles of transcultural psychiatry, a field in which culture, as well as the brain, is understood as essential to the understanding and treatment of mental illness. The project collaborators will reflect upon a number of fundamental questions in the theory of transcultural psychiatry. For instance, do the expectations of Western psychiatric culture mould the shape of mental illness in Western European and North American contexts? Why are certain kinds of behaviour or experience (for example, hearing voices, seeing dead loved ones) understood as harmless in certain culture contexts, and as a sign or symptom of mental disorder in others? If unusual or peculiar behaviour is understood as normal or healthy for a particular culture, then is psychiatry also taking part in the contemporary politics of identity, in which cultural difference is recognised and validated? The project will be conducted amongst a number of clinical and academic collaborators, from a variety of institutions and disciplines. They will debate via an on-line forum hosted within a blog, to which they will be encouraged to also contribute content. Further reflection will take place at two face-to-face workshop events, where the collaborators will have a chance to meet in person, make presentations (which may be podcasted), and engage in live discussion. The academic and clinical community, and the wider public, will learn about the project via the blog and website, and through synergies with other research and knowledge exchange initiatives. It is hoped that reflective issues developed in the forum and workshops will impact not only research, but also the practice of mental healthcare in diverse cultural contexts, including not only non-Western cultures, but also subcultures (for example, of religion or ethnicity) within Western culture.