Culture Bound Syndromes

Words: 587
Pages: 3
Open Document
The degree to which television contributes to physical dissatisfaction, eating disorders, and life satisfaction in teenage girls and young adults is a hot issue that continues to be debated. Although the television debate touches on many important topics, the influence of television on teen girls’ physical dissatisfaction remains the most relevant and controversial. Studies on this matter have emboldened researchers to believe that television influences on physical dissatisfaction may contribute to eating disorder symptoms, which explain growth in eating disorders across the female demographic in the United States. Other critics, however, contend that correlations between television and physical dissatisfaction are not intrinsically linked nor …show more content…
Dr. Sumathipala, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, coined the name for television influenced eating disorders “culture bound syndrome” (Ferguson 2.) The term culture bound syndrome is used to describe unique syndromes that emerge in specific cultures. Of these syndromes Sumathipala studied, eating disorder syndromes took him by surprise. In over 200 clinical studies Sumathipala conducted, Sumathipala’s research and extensive interviews with his subjects were quick to “point out that increased incidence of eating disorders [in his test subjects] coincide with trends in the media toward emphasizing thinness in women. Sumathipala’s clinical studies in particular, “demonstrated a rising trend [in bulimia] and anorexia” in participating test subjects (Ferguson 2.) Despite Sumathipala’s success in correlating his subject’s eating disorders with television influences, his critics rejected his findings. Because Sumathipala’s studies primarily focused on patients with clinical eating disorders, critics claimed ruling television influences to be the only basis of their psychosis to be impossible. However, studies soon after on subjects that did not have
Show More

Related Documents: Culture Bound Syndromes

Culture Bound Syndromes Essays

Culture-Bound Syndromes Culture-bound syndromes (CBSs) comprise a heterogeneous set of illness phenomena of particular interest to medical anthropologists and to psychiatrists. The eclectic nature of the category makes it hard to define precisely, and has invited much dispute over the best name and definition for it. DSM-IV (844) defines a culture-bound syndrome: recurrent, locality-specific patterns of aberrant behavior and troubling experience that may or may not be linked to a particular DSM-IV…

Words 902 - Pages 4

A Brief Note On Culture Bound Syndromes

Culture-Bound Syndromes By: Central Arkansas University Table of Contents Abstract Pg. 3 Introduction Pg. 4 - 8 Methodology Pg. 8 - 10 Analysis & Discussion Pg. 10 - 11 Conclusion & Recommendations Pg. 11- 13 Bibliography Pg. 14 Abstract Mental Health as described by LaVeist and Thomas (2005) is “a state of successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with…

Words 3261 - Pages 14

Ataque De Nervios Research Paper

The cultural concept I chose for this assignment is Ataque de nervios. Ataque de nervios is a term used by Caribbean Latinos for a culture-bound syndrome that is characterized by episodic, dramatic outbursts of negative emotion in response to a stressor, sometimes involving destructive behavior. Such as crying, shouting and getting aggressive. An Ataque de nervios often follows a stressful life event—e.g., death of family member, divorce or conflict with spouse or children. It was first discovered…

Words 294 - Pages 2

Do People In Other Cultures Experience As A Disease Or Illness In Western Culture

How people in other cultures experience as a disease or illness might sound strange or funny to most Western orientated people. Anthropologists are researching a diversity of cultures, and they are finding some exotic diseases, for example, Koro, Hsieh-Ping or Amok. These are known as culture bound syndromes. The definition of culture bound syndrome is “view that affliction syndromes and treatments may be specific to particular cultures and thus not comparable as universal conditions” (Maupin. PowerPoint…

Words 639 - Pages 3

Symptom Experience

derived meaning for the individual experiencing the symptoms (Suchman, 1965:115). Moreover, it includes the emotional response for fear that accompanies both physical and cognitive interpretations (Suchman, 1965:115). Therefore, in dealing with culture-bound syndrome, the sociologist needs to consider what the symptoms of dhat…

Words 533 - Pages 3

Mental Illness: A Cultural Analysis

The world is consist of various cultures that make up the world there is modern cultures, tribal cultures, and cultures that continue to leave there old traditions. Modern day cultures favor a form of technology that can help diagnosis a person of a mental disorder. The DSM is a Psycholgical tool to help diagnosis a person if they have a mental disorder and it is used to help a Psychologist. Mental illnesses are conditions that afect a persons mood, behavior, and thinking. This paper presents critical…

Words 782 - Pages 4

Postnatal Depression: A Cultural Analysis

anthropological investigation of postnatal depression centres on a more holistic cultural framework. Here, culture is defined as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Hemingway and Brereton, 2009,p 27). Culture is learned and shared. It has force and power (Boland et al 2013,p 76). Culture is a “silent language”, in the sense that it is often transparent in shaping the individual experience…

Words 547 - Pages 3

Ethical Diagnosis Of Depression

Therefore, culture influences individual’s life style, behavior and knowledge. According to cultural relativism theory, personality is mainly acquired thru culture. Hence, culture has a major impact on ways that a person interprets and responses to different environmental stressors meaning it is responsible for the subjective variations of illness. Different cultures interpret their symptoms differently, cultural belief influences the understanding…

Words 978 - Pages 4

Jimmy Santiago Baca

While Kenneth Hartman found a substantive genre through the reiteration of pre-existing texts, Jimmy Santiago Baca is finding significance through the study of his own culture. In terms of establishing one’s authorial credibility, Hartman did not have the duty to examine himself as a gendered or racialized being, whereas Baca is responsible for the latter. While A Place to Stand certainly utilizes its literary allusions to a lesser degree than Mother California and The House on Mango Street, Baca…

Words 1415 - Pages 6

Essay on Eliza: Immune System and Hiv Positive Patient

understand the molecular biology of the human immunodeficiency virus and the pathogenesis of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The experimental concepts and methodology involved with enzyme-linked immune sorbent (ELISA) assays will be introduced in the context of the clinical screening of serum samples for antibodies to the HIV virus. Background: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease characterized by the progressive deterioration of an individual's immune system. The immunological…

Words 4592 - Pages 19