The Americanization of Mental Illness Vocab Sheet

Alyssa Brandt

January 7, 2010

The Americanization of Mental Illness

Vocabulary

Epoch – a period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event

Symptomatology – study of diseases

Stigma- an indication of the past of history/disease

Questions/Comments

The case in China with the dramatically rising number of “anorexia” and other eating disorders as influenced by the west was incredible to read about. It never occurred to me that mental disorders would be different in other places around the world. I guess one would infer that environment plus genes and other factors can yield different types of mental diseases, since it also yields different skin colors/heights/other variations within the various ethnicities. Could the different types of disorders be attributed to evolution? It seems like it could be additional support if it is true… also, the unconscious influence knowledge of a disorder has on a person is really interesting.

In general, the unconscious mind and its power over our actions and body are pretty crazy… in those experiments mentioned (the cause being given as either a past event or just a basic medical explanation) as well as others give us an idea of what kind of things influence the way we treat our fellow human beings. Even really small pieces of information can alter our actions- all unconsciously!

Short:

Unconscious mind – reactions, views, etc.

Evolution/cultural evolution relating to different disorders

Americans control the world.