Posted by Sigismund on January 10, 2010, at 18:09:02
In reply to hi, haven't posted to this board, posted by floatingbridge on January 10, 2010, at 15:29:54
>"The Americanization of Mental Illness"
Right! This sounds like it's right up my alley.
Still and all, if I have to be mentally ill, I might prefer the American version to (say) the Chinese one.
I was watching a film called "Up the Yangtze" about some young people in the area getting jobs, which for this young woman from a very poor family involves leaving them more or less permanently to work at a basic level on a cruise boat. After a year or so the parents meet up with her with the director(?) of the boat, talking to the director as serfs would. When they meet their daughter, the parents acknowledge her with a hello. Then the mother addresses the director....'Thank you for tolerating our daughters insolence and disobedience'. And they love their daughter passionately, their pain at being separated from her is palpable, their restraint on the expression of their feelings enormous.
It's like in Russian Labour wards....women who cry out are instructed to be silent.
I'm fascinated by cultural differences.
poster:Sigismund
thread:933156
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20091125/msgs/933177.html