Is the Agenda for Global Mental Health a Form of Cultural Imperialism?, by Gavin Miller

The question whether and how mental illness is universal, as well as the globalization of mental illness and mental health, have given rise to acrimonious controversy (see, for a recent exchange, Miller 2014; Summerfield, 2012, 2014; White 2013).

Independently of local knowledge systems, the misery of people who would be diagnosed as suffering from brain disorders according to ICD or DSM is undeniable, and the way they are treated in many cultures around the world fully warrants the indignation of the Harvard medical anthropologist and cross-cultural psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman (2009), who depicted the current situation as a “failure of humanity.” At the practical field level, making up for such a failure must be a top priority.

Vidal, Fernando and Ortega, Francisco. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject (Forms of Living)....

Dr. Gavin Miller, University of Glasgow

Profile: Derek Summerfield, Politics and Psychiatry

Dr. Ross White, University of Liverpool

Miller, Gavin. 2014. “Is the Agenda for Global Mental Health a Form of Cultural Imperialism?” Medica...

Summerfield, Derek. 2012. “Afterword: Against ‘Global Mental Health.’” Transcultural Psychiatry 49 (...