Page 12 - NAMAH-Jan-2017

Cultural U-turns in understanding mental health
Dr. Natalie Tobert
Abstract
This article explores systematic cultural U-turns which occur globally, and it suggests we are heading
towards another change regarding our understanding of consciousness and mental well-being. It
also presents older assumptions around mental well-being, and newer ways of understanding and
addressing human experiences.
Introduction
What is a cultural U-turn? In the past we
(society) accepted certain kinds of knowledge
as ‘truth’. Our governments made laws,
which criminalised certain groups of people,
who decades later were better understood.
Governments then changed their minds
about what was correct, revoked laws and
apologised for their earlier actions.
Our beliefs about mental health are culturally
determined. Today there is a gap between
the beliefs of some physicians and some
patients, and the aim of this article is to
address a gap in understanding, explore some
ancient wisdoms and suggest that it is time
for another cultural U-turn in understanding.
Today many people support a new paradigm
of consciousness, which embraces anomalous,
extreme, clairvoyant and spiritual experiences.
They question the pathology around intense
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experiences and consider it time to call a halt
to the out-dated Eurocentric disease-model
of human suffering, and to raise awareness
of cultural ways of interpreting ‘symptoms’,
in order to benefit the mental well-being of
global populations.
Overview
In the first part of this article, I have sum-
marised old-fashioned assumptions around
mental health, the treatment options and
the dissemination about so-called evidence.
The older assumptions, which included
chemical imbalance, disease of the brain,
ethnic predispositions and illness for life,
resulted in stigma and discrimination. I have
noted that from within the profession, anti-
psychiatry and critical psychiatry movements
developed, which questioned evidence and
research data.
In the second part, I present the new terminology