This volume represents a major contribution to the field of culture and mental health. While the field lacks a unified paradigm for its diverse areas of inquiry, it is united in its endeavor to question the relevance of the reductionistic biomedical disease model'. The evidence presented here supporting the role of cultural factors in the etiology, expression, course, and outcome of mental disorders is overwhelming. At the same time, the work eludicates many conceptual and methodological issues that remain unresolved.' Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 1: 1 (1987) Each section is in itself a worthy volume on its own. The four sections together combine to give the breadth and depth of conceptions to satisfy one's most rigorous intellectual, theoretical and clinical demands. ... This is a book that is a must on the reading list of every worker in the field of culture and mental health - psychiatrists, psychologists, anthropologists, social workers and serious scholars who have an interest in the study of the human mind and the human spirit in cultural context. The editors and authors are to be congratulated on such a marvellously rich volume.' Journal of Intercultural Studies, 6: 2

Inhalt

Section I: Cultural Conceptions of the Person and Health.- 1. Introduction: Cultural Conceptions in Mental Health Research and Practice.- 2. Culture and Psychiatric Illness: Biomedical and Ethnomedical Aspects.- 3. The Ethnographic Study of Cultural Knowledge of "Mental Disorder".- 4. Does the Concept of the Person Vary Cross-Culturally?.- Section II: Cultural Conceptions of Mental Disorder.- 5. Toward a Meaning-Centered Analysis of Popular Illness Categories: "Fright- Illness" and "Heart Distress" in Iran.- 6. Cultural Definitions, Behavior and the Person in American Psychiatry.- 7. Samoan Folk Knowledge of Mental Disorders.- 8. Popular Conceptions of Mental Health in Japan.- 9. Science and Psychological Medicine in the Ayurvedic Tradition.- Section III: Cultural Conceptions of Therapy.- 10. The Unbounded Self: Balinese Therapy in Theory and Practice.- 11. Self-Reconstruction in Japanese Religious Psychotherapy.- 12. Psychotherapy and Emotion in Traditional Chinese Medicine.- 13. Shaman-Client Interchange in Okinawa: Performative Stages in Shamanic Therapy.- 14. Sunao: A Central Value in Japanese Psychotherapy.- Section IV: Issues and Directions.- 15. The Intercultural Context of Counseling and Therapy.- 16. Culture and Mental Health: An Overview.- List of Contributors.- Author Index.