Culture-bound syndromes: a re-evaluation

TL;DRAbstract

For over a century, cultures in traditional societies were seen as providing exotic and esoteric clinical conditions, which were not 'seen' in other cultures. The history of clinical anthropology followed two different routes in Western Europe and North America. By and large in the colonial times the anthropologists studied the ruled populations, whereas in North America the focus was on native and aboriginal groups. As a result, the clinicians who went to work in the colonies decided that certain conditions occurred only as a result of civilizations and that the colonialized people could possible not suffer from these. On the other hand, conditions were seen 'exclusively' in certain ethnic groups and were a result of under development of the brain and the behaviour was uncivilized. Amok, seen in the Malay archipelago, was criminalized by the British. Consequently, a previously acceptable social behaviour was criminal behaviour and all those who suffered from it were sent to prison. Th

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