5. North America

Abstract

Consecutive admissions of schizophrenics (paranoid and catatonic) belonging to different social classes and ethnic groups are studied by SANUA at 'thera peutic' hospitals and state mental hospitals regarding differences in family characteristics. The ethno-religious groups represented are Jews, Protestants, Irish and Italian. Differences were found in the incidence of parental mental illness, bereavement, and patterns of rejection and overprotection. On com parison of schizophrenic symptoms displayed by two non-Western ethnic groups in Hawaii (Filipino and Japanese-American) diagnosed in accordance with the Kraepelinian system significant differences were found by ENRIGHT and JAECKLE. This finding, the authors conclude, suggests that the usefulness of the Kraepelinian diagnostic system and its derivatives is limited by its culturally narrow origins and casts doubt on the meaningfulness of cross cultural comparisons of psychopathology that employ the Kraepelinian system. The main thesis of KAPLAN's and JOHNSON'S paper is that mental ill nesses are oriented to and shaped by the cultures' conceptions concerning them. This is demonstrated by reference to the Navaho tribe. Three distinctive Navaho illnesses are dealt with at length: 'Moth craziness', 'Ghost sickness' and 'Crazy violence'.