Q – What is Culture? Mental Health Assessments

IDK if you’ve ever done a mental health questionnaire? But they sneak some queries in there about what you believe to be true. To see if you’re engaging in magical thinking, understand what is real or false, perception.

For eg, If you believe in things like ‘laying on of hands’, reiki, healing by massage, acupressure or intimate touch, you run the risk of being seen as one who believes in odd things. In western medicine, these things aren’t effective. They might be considered as palliative or supportive measures, but that’s about it. Yet in eastern medicine, they’re common treatments.

And those kind of things can lead to a profile on the schizophrenic scale.

So what does Western medicine see as ‘culture’? Judao-Christian, white, mostly protestant, the white bread lack of faith where you go to services on high holidays only and pray when you’re upset? And the divine is some guy up in the sky who threatens you with annihilation if you have a good time? Pretty much yes.

But how much of the people of the world would ID as that? Not enough to say it’s insanity to not believe that.

Yet in North America esp, that is what you are held up to and if you don’t believe it, you’re ill.

How is that fair? Or an honest assessment?

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This is why there is a strong anti-psychiatry movement again. That and feminists argue that women should be judged by a feminine standard rather than a bunch of male college students or male prisoners, Women show their anger and fear in different ways than men do. We have different experiences of intelligence and education/work/relationships than men do. We see the world differently. Which isn’t a bad thing. So why are we judged and found wanting?

But we are, and since we are, we end up being diagnosed with mental illnesses more than men are. Well. partly that, and partly because when we feel off, we go seek out help sooner.

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And that’s white women, what about LGBTQ? BIPOC? It’s no great surprise that they end up in institutions more, whether prisons or hospitals, and their kids end up in foster care more. Is it?

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So what can we do to change this? Is it even possible?