From latah to schizophrenia. A review of the psychiatric categories under a medical anthropology approach

Abstract

Decades ago, the field of mental health included the category of culture-bound syndromes, related to those afflictions that, in contrast to psychiatric disorders, are restricted to certain cultures. The category has been questioned by medical anthropology, since it supposes a separation between the “real” biologic and universal disorders, and a glossary of leftover syndromes, supposedly shaped only by culture. The current article is a review of this debate using two main examples: a culture-bound syndrome called latah, and schizophrenia. Both examples are used to analyze two core tensions in medical anthropology and cultural psychiatry: the tension between nature and culture, and the tension between natural and interpretive explanations. It will be argued in favor of a complementarity between both kinds of explanations, as well as the importance of a critical and reflexive perspective of the psychiatric knowledge and practice, and the necessity of a better dialogue between medical anthropology, psychiatry and natural sciences.