Possibly the person who is famous for pointing out that "illness" is a
social construction is Michel Foucault?
However,
* I side with Carl and others on the importance of seeing the root of much
psychosis in the culture and society which generates it, and
* I agree that an individual who is suffering mentally as a result must
benefit in the short term from applying their energies to the external
source of pressures on their sanity, and
* The social problem has to be fixed, rather than people "adjusting" to it,
or being wiped out with drugs,
still,
* we (members of this list, "those in the know") cannot assume that it is
'our' role to fix the social relations and the sufferers' role to receive
the benefit, or that culutral historical activity theory has nothing to say
about the means of approaching solutions to the social problems.
For example, if you apply your mind to conceiving of a form of society in
which these problems don't exist, I think you would find that it is not at
all easy to "fix the social problems",
Andy
At 09:45 PM 1/22/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Paul,
>
>You say:
>
>"Isn't the further implication that the practitioners who treat '
>individuals" perhaps attempting to treat a symptom when the cause is
>institutional/cultural to begin with."
>
>I couldn't have said it any better. Thank you. That's exactly why I brought
>up the example of the two women of my study, whose psychologists encouraged
>to focus on their own self, in line with the individualistic,
person-centered
>perspective.The unintended consequence was that by diverting these women's
>attention away from others, psychotherapy underestimated the need for them
to
>learn or enhance their communication skills so they would be able to share
>their deeply intimate and human feelings with another person, which is
>crucial to every healthy relationship.
>
>And Nate, you say:
>
>"A recent article I read on ADHD mentioned now 5% of the world's population
>is on ritalin, but over 80% of its consumption is in the United States."
>
>If we believe, as individualistic psychologists and most physicians trained
>in the medical model do, that behavioral problems originate from within the
>individual, then we'll try to correct the individual with whatever it takes.
>Conversely, if we make external attributions, then instead of blaming the
>victim, we'll try to change the environment. I have lived in different
>cultures where most of the time people look for external causes to explain
>symptoms. I don't have the reference handy, but you may want to look into
>literature in medical sociology regarding the trend in our culture to
>medicalize "deviance." As soon as I can put my hand on that particular book
>(I'm sorry, I don't remember the author), I'll be glad to give you the
>reference and the pages that describe the history of ADHD, in particular. In
>1993, I believe, the American Psychologist published a series of articles by
>the NIH task force. One in particular, recommended to focus on the influence
>of culture on some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, following the
>repeated finding that in developing countries, people diagnosed with
>schizophrenia had not only periods of remission but
>could also get cured of the symptoms, whereas no such thing has ever
happened
>in the western world. The main difference between these two worlds is that
>while we label and tend to withdraw from people diagnosed with
schizophrenia,
>in these other cultures--precisely because people make external
>attributions--people tend to refrain from labeling and do not withdraw their
>social support from them. So, it looks like cultural psychology is badly
>needed especially by those who make decisions about others' lives. And I
>think you agree with that, don't you?
>
>Doris.
>
**************************************************
* Andy Blunden, Teaching Space Support Team Leader
* University of Melbourne 9344 0312 W, 9380 9435 H
* Email ablunden@unimelb.edu.au W, andy@mira.net H
* http://www.ists.unimelb.edu.au - Work
* http://home.mira.net/~andy/ - Home
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