Abstract
This section presents two articles on methodology. The first article, written by Raoul NAROLL, questions the possibility of relying on anthropological obser vations to obtain a reliable measure of mental health in a community. A new method is proposed along with a critical view of the frustration-agression theory in relation to suicide. The so-called 'thwarting disorientation' hypothesis is advanced as being more adequate and seems to be supported by an ingenious method of analysis. The second article, by G. BENOIT, is interesting as an indication of French psychiatrists' growing interest in social and transcultural psychiatry. Two major trends of transcultural psychiatry are briefly analyzed, one focusing upon Western nosology, the other emphasizing the cultural diversity of mental health. Transcultural psychiatry is conceived as a means to broaden the frontiers of psychiatry as well as to reconsider classical symp tomatology.
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