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Anthropology and Psychiatry

The Role of Culture in Cross-Cultural Research on Illness

Bibliographic Data

ID23329286
AuthorsA Kleinman (0000-0003-0721-2017, Harvard University Press, corresponding author)
Year1987
Volume151
Issue4
Pages447-454
Publication date1987-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal of Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1250 • E-ISSN: 1472-1465
PublisherRoyal College of Psychiatrists (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1192/bjp.151.4.447
PMID23923142
OpenAlexW2123207663
LanguageEN
Citations received220
References cited10

To illustrate the contribution anthropology can make to cross-cultural and international research in psychiatry, four questions have been put to the cross-cultural research literature and discussed from an anthropological point of view: ‘To what extent do psychiatric disorders differ in different societies?’ ‘Does the tacit model of pathogenicity/pathoplasticity exaggerate the biological aspects of cross-cultural findings and blur their cultural dimensions?’ ‘What is the place of translation in cross-cultural studies?’ and ‘Does the standard format for conducting cross-cultural studies in psychiatry create a category fallacy?’ Anthropology contributes to each of these concerns an insistence that the problem of cross-cultural validity be given the same attention as the question of reliability, that the concept of culture be operationalised as a research variable, and that cultural analysis be applied to psychiatry's own taxonomies and methods rather than just to indigenous illness beliefs of native populations.

Cross-cultural · Cross-cultural studies · Cultural anthropology · Epistemology · Fallacy · Indigenous · Medical anthropology · Sociology · Anthropology · Cultural, Psychoanalytic, and Sociopolitical Reflections · Ecology · Mental Health Treatment and Access · Migration, Health and Trauma · Philosophy · Psychology

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Unique citing works220
Citations per year5,95
Citation span1989 - 2026 (38)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedYes
Citation typesNeutral: 210
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