Posted by chujoe on May 18, 2010, at 7:12:51
In reply to Re: History of depression - um? » linkadge, posted by sigismund on May 17, 2010, at 20:42:13
This is absolutely true. Though I'm an American I have lived for extended periods in Vietnam. One of the things I love about the place is how much of life is lived communally. But there is great pressure to conform because failure to conform often means being excluded & lonely. It is hard for us in the west to understand how frightening the prospect of loneliness is to a Vietnamese person -- whether that loneliness is caused by immigration or mental illness.
A number of people have noted lately here on PB that "mental illness" exhibits itself differently in different cultures, a fact that might give us some clues as to what happens when someone gets sick. Personally, I think it's a combination of biological predisposition and environmental influences, including the influences of the social worlds in which an individual lives.
poster:chujoe
thread:946874
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100514/msgs/947789.html