Matched samples of mental hospital staff and high school students completed mental health questionnaires in Germany and America. The results were factor analysed. One factor concerned the role of the psychiatrist. The role of the psychia trist in each culture seems to reflect basic cultural conceptions of mental disorders. Reference to two earlier papers indicates that patients, staff, and public share these basic conceptions and these conceptions affect patient-staff relationships.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bellak, L.: Contemporary European Psychiatry; New York: Grove Press, 1961.
2.
Benedict, R.: "Anthropology and the Abnormal." Journal of General Psychology, 1934, 10, 59-80.
3.
Devereux, G.: "Cultural Thought Models in Primitive and Modern Psychiatric Theories ." Psychiatry, 1958, 21, 359-374.
4.
Hoff, H. and Arnold, O.H.: "Germany and Austria." In Contemporary European Psychiatry , L. Bellak, ed.; New York: Grove Press, 1961.
5.
Jaeckel, M. and Wieser, S.: Das Bild des Geisteskranken in der Offentlichkeit; Stuttgart : Georg Thieme Verlag, 1970.
6.
Kiev, A.: Transcultural Psychiatry; New York : Free Press, 1972.
7.
Nunnally, J.: Popular Conceptions of Mental Health; New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961 .
8.
Robbins, L.: "A Historical Review of the Classification of Behaviour Disorders and One Current Perspective." In The Classification of Behaviour Disorders, L. Eron, ed.; Chicago: Aldine, 1966.
9.
Torrey, E.: The Death of Psychiatry; Randor, Penn.: Chilton Books, 1974.
10.
Townsend, J.: "Cultural Conceptions and Mental Illness." Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1975, 160, 409-421.
11.
—: "Cultural Conceptions, Mental Disorders, and Social Roles." American Sociological Review, 1975, 40, 739-752.
