The Culture Question

[Eliscu2]

Reminds me of various cultural mental maladies I read about in a Psych 101 textbook I bought a few months back. I ought to finish reading that thing, I bought the damn thing after all.

seriously.. I need to get something better to do with my time.

That Psych 101 book....TOSS IT!
Bunch of Bullshiiiiiit!

[Che Gookin]

Mebbe, mebbe not.. It is something to read and when you are in the middle of China with nothing to read, you read what you can get your hands on. I think the interesting overall point though is different cultures have different ways of viewing and treating mental health conditions. One of the things I'm finding of interest is the Soviet era mental health treatment/torture methodologies.

[Oz girl]

i think time on the couch can have it's uses if you are having an especially tough time with some sort of grief or a bout of depression or if you are genuinely mentally ill. it can get things in perspective. One of flaws of Australian culture is i guess the "suck it up and be a man" approach. it is possibly an expalanation for the high levels of alcoholism in this country. But the idea that a therapist is a sign that you have "made it" or that a kid should have a therapist whether they want one or not seems dangerous. So many programs talk about taking kids who don't like talk therapy. I dont think I want to know a kid who would sooner sit on a therapist's couch on a sunny day than kick a ball around or even play video games with some other kids.
At the moment i am studying & one of my topics is grief counselling. I was reminded recently of another discussion I recently had with Ursus about the idea that this industry can grossly distort or bastardize sound or benign ideas. i came across a classic example of this in wilderness therapy. Many psychs dealing with kids do now argue that a standard "couch" approach is indtimidating or just boring for kids and they are unlikely to trust or open up this way. Some suggest meeting them in their home and depending on age having them show you their favourite toys, or else maybe if they are older playing basketball or tennis with them or maybe chess and talking that way. I then read the front page of SUWS youth who noted talk therapy is sometimes ineffective. But rather than encourage doing something with the kid that is likely to put them at ease, of course the approach was to take them further from their comfort zone and punish them thus entirely missing the point. It makes me wonder if some parts of middle america are now encouraging their children to embrace therapy and being able to boast you sent your kid to suws or whoever is similar to boasting that you see a therapist on a constant basis.

[Ursus]

One of the things I'm finding of interest is the Soviet era mental health treatment/torture methodologies.

Then you might wanna check out this thread, or at least the first page of it (afterwards, it wanders off a bit into more current psyche meds issues):

Punitive Psychiatry
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29358[/list]