PTSD
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Mental disorders have a social and cultural aspect that is
not very frequently taken into account. Different varieties and forms of mental
disorders appear in different cultures at various different times – depending
on specifically what the society and culture views as pathological at that
particular moment in time. If culture can shape the form of a mental illness,
how is it a biological disease of the brain?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety
and stress disorder. It is usually
caused by experiencing a traumatic experience or event. Symptoms of PTSD is re-experiencing the event
in nightmares or flashbacks and being unable to control the memory
recollection. You can see the transition
of stress disorders throughout our history with the way our culture was.
Whatever our society viewed as especially pathological at the time was the
norm. For example, there was hysteria in the 1700’s and 1800’s, Da Costa’s
syndrome in the Civil War, shell shock in World War I, etc.
When the tsunami hit Sri Lanka, the western world attempted
to bring PTSD to Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lankans could not relate to it. Their
symptoms of trauma and stress are vastly different than ours. Our PTSD
Checklist and trauma therapy was not very helpful to their culture. The way that Sri Lankans experience emotional
suffering, trauma, and stress is different from the way that our culture does.
Through an attempt to create a Sri Lankan specific checklist, it was revealed
that Sri Lankans most notably experienced physical and somatic symptoms. They
were more concerned with their social relationships with others.
The following is a clip of Ethan Watters talking about PTSD
in other cultures:
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