Culture and history in psychiatric diagnosis and practice

Conceptual issues involved in the complementary but at times opposed, perspectives of cultural and international psychiatry are reviewed. The history of these two perspectives is pertinent to understanding their presuppositions. The nineteenth-century mix of demography, public health, and approaches to social welfare constitute the roots of national and international systems of psychiatry. Conditions of life of pluralist societies coping with the exigencies of the civil rights movement from 1975 to 2000 were factors that led to the growth of a cultural emphasis in psychiatry The importance of national and cultural traditions in psychiatric diagnosis and practice seem to conflict with the need for a common language that is universal or culture-free. Why this is so is discussed. The importance of integrating the two perspectives, a fundamental objective of this issue of the Clinics, is outlined.