Not only that, but you can access the DSM-IV clinical test on-line. If you take a look at the questions that answering "yes" to qualifies you for insanity, it's scary. For example, if you believe there are beings you cannot see or touch, or something like that (it's been a long time). The upshot is if you, for example, believe in God, you can be technically diagnosed as having a mental disorder. I'll try to look for the link later, but I found it highly troubling what was required for "normalcy". Julie Krueger ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Who's Crazy? We Are Date: 6/8/05 2:52:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time From: _carolkir@xxxxxxxxx (mailto:carolkir@xxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: > Do ask yourself, however, if this study is valid, ck: Is the study valid across cultures in different parts of the world? Of course not. It can't be. The study's definitions of mental illness comes from the DSM-IV, which is a (mostly) white US cultural product of this past decade. Those presenting themselves for treatment are included in such a study. The study is skewed towards more women having a mental illness, for instance, simply because women show up at doctors' offices more than men (pregnancy alone accounts for regular MD visits among women). Moreover, the DSM-IV takes a preventative approach by defining, for instance, "major clinical depression" as lasting at least two weeks. Two weeks? Loads of people qualify who wouldn't ordinarily think themselves candidates for, say, SSRIs. What we've got here in the US is a case of psychiatric jitters, imo. And Big Pharma pushing drugs, with antsy doctors prescribing more of them more often than they do in places where malpractice suits aren't so prevalent. Now, in other countries and cultures, if you're depressed you're sad, and it's all right. People are allowed to be sad. But not in the US. Here, at this point in history, even a death in the family isn't supposed to prompt more than a day or two of feeling out of sorts and teary. And do people in other countries and cultures develop OCD, panic disorder, and various forms of affective disorders? Yes, according to other studies done on specific ethnic and national groups in the US, but symptoms won't necessarily meet strict DSM-IV criteria, and therefore can't be "counted." (How does a psychiatrist treat compulsive praying? My guess is that this is one of the most prevalent disorders in the world, only few would admit to it.) The genehunters traced mental illnesses to brain chemistry--and yes, genes--a while back. Supposedly, schizophrenia has a "genetic component" (twin studies again), as do panic disorder, OCD, and bipolar disorder. Brain-based diseases, not "emotional." There's no separation. Mental illness is biological illness today. If this is true, why wouldn't we expect to find psychiatric disorders worldwide? It seems that certain cultures tend towards specific types of psychiatric disorders, however, based on studies within the US. Proportions may change, but people are loony all over--except in Mississippi. There, insanity is properly known as "eccentricity," and is tolerated quite well. But then, so is racism. No, I don't know what I meant by that crack, either. Better go back into deep lurk mode. ciao, Carol ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html