Sectorial Activities - Scientific Sections
SECTION ON TRANSCULTURAL PSYCHIATRY |
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DIRECTIVE BOARD Chair: Goffredo Bartocci M.D. Via Massaua 9, 00162 Rome (Italy) Fax: 0039-06-8606858; e-mail: goffrybart@tiscalinet.it Co-Chair: Prof. Ronald Wintrob, USA, rwintrob@earthlikn.net Secretary: Prof. Fumitaka Noda, Japan, nfumita@attglobal.net |
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INTRODUCTION TO ITS FIELD OF ACTIVITY The discipline of Transcultural Psychiatry (TP) continues to pursue the comparative approach outlined by Kraepelin (1904) and subsequently developed by Wittkower (1966) in the achievement of its five main objectives:
As Wittokower underscores, the Latin prefix "trans" in the term "Transcultural Psychiatry": "denotes that the vista of the scientific observer extends beyond the scope of one cultural unit to another". Prof. Murphy, the founder of our Section, defines the discipline as: "the study of the relations between mental disorders and the psychological characteristics which differentiate nations, peoples or cultures. Its main goals are to identify, verify and explain the links between mental disorders and these broad psychosocial characteristics" (1982). If we consider the strong thrust given by the World Health Organization's epidemiological research efforts ( the International Pilot Study on Schizophrenia [1973-79] and the Determinant of Outcome of Severe Mental Illness [1992]) that have consolidated the cross-cultural approach on an international scale, present-day transcultural psychiatry shows "a shift in emphasis from cross-cultural comparisons of psychiatric categories to examining psychiatric epistemology and clinical practice in all societies" (Littlewood, 1990). |
PUBLICATIONS
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REMARKS It is evident that phenomena such as the increasing migratory flows and the globalisation of prevailing social criteria referred to the economy, trade, religion and the perception and the attribution of the causes of disease have determined a shift in the world cultural balance that have direct repercussions on World Mental Health. It is far from our intention to elevate Transcultural Psychiatry to a privileged ecumenical role although it does possess the epistemological status establishing it as the possible interface between other highly specialist disciplines thus enabling it to continue to perform an on-going review of the different interpretation systems of mental ailments and to rely on the best-suited means of suggesting new therapeutic approaches. The proceedings of the Section Symposia organised within the framework of all World Psychiatry Congresses (Mexico City 1971, Honolulu 1977, Vienna 1983, Athens 1988-89, Rio de Janeiro 1993, Madrid 1996, Hamburg 1999) as well as the Symposia autonomously organised by the TP Section together with National Associations (China 1985, Hungary 1991, Pakistan and India 1995, Italy 1997, Brazil 1998, U.K. 2000) have been consistent in contributing to the development of an approach to Mental Health that might be sensitive and comprehensive of all the different views of the world. The WPA TP Section therefore represents a global network of researchers, clinical workers and teachers in the field of cross-cultural and ethno-psychiatry. Section membership is open to psychiatrists, psychologists, anthropologists and social scientists who are committed to this field: they are therefore all invited to apply for membership so as to join us in the forthcoming TP Section Symposia:
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