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This paper presents the concepts and terminology of mental disorder as they emerged spontaneously from Malays, both urban and rural, of West Malaysia during nearly 2 years of interviewing and examining patients and nonpatients. Translated into a Western framework and summarized, the concepts are: heredity, periodicity, congenitality, brain strain, stress (including interpersonal), susceptibility, infection, contagion, delayed onset, conditioning, and resistance. The parallelism between these folk and modern concepts suggests certain universal bases and clues to labeling and treatment of mental disorders. The study revealed existence of a skeletal community mental health program.

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