Today

• Mental Health & Culture-Bound Syndromes

• Presentation guidelines

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Culture-Bound Syndromes
• Patterns of behavior or experiences that are
considered illnesses within a culture (or set of
cultures)
• Given local names
• Often do not match (perfectly or at all) Western/
biomedical illnesses
• Often mental or emotional health-based
• Both term and concept critiqued

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Do you think baksbat and PTSD are the same thing expressed
differently, or similar but separate conditions? What would be
implications (e.g. for research, health care) for either answer?

• Symptoms seem pretty similar

• Not enough detail in article
• Individual variation, cultural variation
• Treatments differ but that doesn’t define condition
• “Causes” identified – but what is cultural?
• If different/unique, maybe need to expand
definition of PTSD
• Frame of reference used for treatment
• Training for different conditions, knowledge
• Implications for funding/support
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How might the language used to describe a condition influence
how people experience them or others’ responses to them?
(Examples: permanent break of body/spirit, being afraid forever for
baksbat, soldier’s heart, shell shock, battle fatigue for PTSD)

• Could be used to normalize, or sound “natural” or

just happens
• Implies just military trauma
• More general education, treatment
• B: names suggest can’t recover

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In what ways is the idea of trauma also culturally determined?
Is trauma something we “diagnose”?

• One side: too much being defined as trauma,

making the population weaker
• Could measure like pain, compared to before, rate
on scale
• Age, previous experience, etc.
• Different or unusual experience might not be the
same as trauma
• Effects of resilience (and learning skills)
• Desensitization
• Secondary trauma
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What are specific strategies that could improve mental health care
for veterans? What role could medical anthropologists play in this?

• Research not just on veterans but others in society

as well
• Transition support systems
• Advocate for legal, political support
• Recognizing cultural/ethnic background of soldiers
• Identification of unhealthy ways of responding

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The book draws connections between amok and mass killings in
various cultures, including the US. Do you think this adequately
explains mass shootings here? How does (or should) this idea
inform current debates around gun control and mental health?
• Increases stigma (assumed violence) – culture of fear,
reductions of health care service
• More likely to be victims of violence
• Does not connect to single, diagnosable mental
condition, but suggests some kind of “abnormal”
mental process
• Homicide, war part of human culture
• What’s normal for culture? (e.g. military
service/training)
• Social contagion aspect?
• Seeing signs – but not nec mental health

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Presentations
• Presentations during week 14 (4/23-4/27)
• 19 students - ~6 per day
• Aim for 5 minute presentations + question &
turnover time
• Rehearse/Practice!
• Email me any files no later than 1 hour before class

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Suggested guidelines
• 3-4 slides total
• 1: “Intro”
• Research question/topic, why it’s important to study, relevance to
class
• 2 (& 3): “Body”
• One or two key findings or examples from literature
• Demonstrate complexity of issues
• If appropriate, short video or other “multimedia”
• 3 or 4: “Conclusion”
• Main thesis, finding, argument, etc.
• Suggestions for future research directions or “real world”
applications
• Fewer than ~40 words total per slide
• Bullet points vs. full sentences
• Images, data tables, etc. to emphasize main points
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Required:
Accessible Presentations
• High contrast (black text on white background or
vice versa)
• Bold or wide font might help
• Sans-serif (e.g. Arial), at least 17-point font
• Describe all images – do not assume audience can
see them

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Next Time:
• Overview of book essay
• Fadiman Preface – Chapter 4
• Questions: Balaguer, Lam, McMillan, Tercsak

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