Psychosomatic Medicine 36:377-398 (1974)
© 1974 American Psychosomatic Society

Problems Implicit in the Cultural and Social Study of Depression

¹ Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. 48824

This paper reviews issues and questions that are tied to the study of psychiatric disease in relation to social systems. The specific focus is on the Western disease depression. The first part deals with problems arising when depression is examined in relation to culture. This part, which is largely analytical, points to problems inherent in the field of cultural psychiatry. The second part addresses problems involved in the study of depression in Western nations. Epidemiological questions as well as factors involving the influence of social factors in the onset, duration and manifestations of depression are given attention in the attempt to bring out fundamental dilemmas tied to the social study of psychiatric disease.

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