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3. India, Burma, Nepal
CASTE AND MENTAL DISORDERS IN BIHAR by S. RAO, Ranchi, India. The American Journal of Psychiatry, I22: 9 (I966), I045-55
RAO explores the relationship of caste to mental disorders as revealed by mental hospital admissions. The ten major castes of Bihar were studied. PFLANZ and LAMBELET compare the frequency of so-called 'diseases of civilisation' (psycho somatic disorders) between India and Germany. Their field research in India was carried out in a tradition-oriented rural area of Maharashtra State. According to HOCH, bronchial asthma holds the first place among psycho somatic conditions in Indian psychiatric patients and their relatives. The psychodynamics of this disorder in relation to socio-cultural factors are discussed by the author. SPIRO suggests that belief in witchraft is a culturally constituted defense mechanism which contributes to Burmese mental health. But it also has dysfunctional consequences, contributing to the Burmese suspicious attitudes toward, and wariness of, their fellows. WEIDMAN, from her anthropological investigations in Burma, arrives at a reformulation of the shame and guilt problem. Little is known about psychiatric problems in Nepal. SHARMA reports on some of his observations.
Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 3, No. 2,
120-123 (1966)
DOI: 10.1177/136346156600300211
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