Culture-bound syndromes, idioms of distress, and cultural concepts of distress: New directions for an old concept in psychological anthropology

This issue of Transcultural Psychiatry showcases some recent work on idioms of distress – the latest in a long line of anthropological research concerned with cross-cultural concepts and experiences of distress.1 Mark Nichter’s (1981) seminal paper introducing idioms of distress has become a cynosur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transcultural psychiatry Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 589 - 598
Main Authors: Kaiser, Bonnie N., Jo Weaver, Lesley
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2019
Subjects:
ISSN:1363-4615, 1461-7471, 1461-7471
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This issue of Transcultural Psychiatry showcases some recent work on idioms of distress – the latest in a long line of anthropological research concerned with cross-cultural concepts and experiences of distress.1 Mark Nichter’s (1981) seminal paper introducing idioms of distress has become a cynosure for psychological anthropology and transcultural psychiatry. A growing body of work has since accumulated; however, the last time a collection of such research was brought together was the 2010 publication of a special issue in the journal Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry organized by Devon Hinton and Roberto Lewis-Fernández. In the decade since, new questions have arisen about the boundaries and applications of idioms of distress research. In this introduction, we provide a brief history of work on idioms of distress and related concepts. Then, we introduce several major themes explored by the papers in this special issue.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
content type line 23
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ISSN:1363-4615
1461-7471
1461-7471
DOI:10.1177/1363461519862708