Culture and mental health

Abstract EN

culture has major inputs that influence the development of mental ill health, the features suggesting mental illness, the restoration of mental health and rehabilitation of people with mental illness.

Early adequate compensation for deprivation of parental care prevents the development of mental ill health in childhood and the vulnerability to mental ill health in adulthood.

Social support by the family neutralizes the adversity of everyday life stresses on various family members, contributes to the development of collective egos and integrates sick members in the family in spite of their mental impairment The majority of people in the Arab world who experience mental illness have somatic symptoms in the foreground of their illness and reveal emotional symptoms only after mental health workers interview them.

Although somatic symptoms are considered more serious and worthy of medical attention, emotional symptoms suggest weakness of personality or weakness of faith.

Behavioral symptoms, on the other hand, may be attributed to supernatural agents in traditional cultures.

Psychometric investigation yields useful information on mental health only after its standardization on the population investigated.

Only culturally competent mental health workers can successfully understand people with mental illness in any community and contribute to the unwitting partnership between traditional and professional help for them.