Multicultural Mental Health

Catalog description

This course examines Non-Western perspectives on mental health, including issues that pertains to definition of mental health contrasted in the context of culturally-bound psychological aberrations, their etiology, diagnosis, and treatment. This course therefore examines unique culture-bound syndromes rarely found in Western societies. Coverage includes social and cultural determinants of psychopathology and the range of problems in individuals, families, and communities; mental health of indigenous peoples, ethnocultural minorities, immigrants, and refugees; cultural views on related issues such as suicide; mental health issues among native Americans and other citizens of non-Western/non-European descent; and the influence of Eastern philosophies on areas of contemporary psychology, views toward mental health, and how the mentally ill are treated. Meets the university requirement for a Non-Western Cultures course.