top of page

Transcultural Psychiatry

Home / Sections / Find a Section / Transcultural Psychiatry

About

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: ï‚·

 

  • exploration of the similarities and differences in the manifestations of mental illness in different cultures; ï‚·

  • identification of cultural factors that predispose to mental illness and mental health; ï‚·

  • assessment of the effect of identified cultural factors on the frequency and nature of mental illness; ï‚·

  • study of the form of treatment practised or preferred in different cultural settings; ï‚·

  • comparison of different attitudes toward the mentally ill in different cultures.

 

As Wittkower 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).

 

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.

Section Officers

Chair:

Sergio Villaseñor Bayardo 

Universidad de Guadalajara

Miranda 1787, Colomos Providencia, Guadalajara, Jalisco,
México. C.P. 44660


E-mail: bvjs@me.com

Co-Chair:

thumbnail_Maurice.jpg

Maurice Eisenbruch

Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Clayton VIC 3168, Australia

E-mail: Maurice@Eisenbruch.com

Secretary:

Goran Mijaljica.docx.jpg

Goran Mijaljica

Transcultural Centre Stockholm

Solnavägen 4, 113 65 Stockholm

Sweden


E-mail: mijaljica@gmail.com

Treasurer

thumbnail_Dr. Okpaku image.jpg

Samuel Okpaku

President & Founder
Center for Health, Culture and Society
1233 17th Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37212, USA

E-mail: sam.okpaku@gmail.com

Board Member

Maosheng.jpeg

Mao-sheng Ran

Professor, Mental Health Center
West China Hospital, Sichuan University
Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China

E-mail: ranmaosh@yahoo.com

>> Please click here to see the Section Members list

​

Visit the Section website here!

Section Activities

WPA - TPS Webinar “Many faces of war: conceptualizing war trauma and PTSD” with Dr Goran Mijaljica

​

Welcome to the third WPA - TPS webinar in 2024, which is to be held on the 23rd October 2024 at 15.00 CET

 

War trauma can be considered a consequence of traumatic experiences faced during and after wartime, and can include many different types of events, such as loss, destruction, violence, torture, and genocide. Moreover, studies report that even experiences such as lack of water, food or shelter have been experienced as traumatic by those who have lived in a conflict zone.

​

The evidence shows that the prevalence rates of psychiatric conditions, such as depression, anxiety and PTSD are two to three times higher in persons exposed to armed conflict. This talk will provide an overview of current knowledge on war trauma, with discussion of a range of concepts of war trauma and PTSD. In addition, there will be discussion of cultural

dimensions of experiences as presented by patients seeking psychiatric treatment.

​

Our speaker, Goran Mijaljica, is a psychiatrist currently working at the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway and the Transcultural Centre, Region Stockholm, Sweden. His clinical work involves psychiatric evaluation and treatment, as well as individual psychotherapy of, among others, patients with traumatic experiences related to war and torture. He has also trained other mental health professionals in trauma and PTSD at the regional and national level in Sweden and Norway. Goran is the Secretary of the WPA Transcultural Psychiatry Section and member of the WHO Research Ethics Committee.

Old Globe
bottom of page