Navigating Diagnoses: Understanding Mind-Body Relations, Mental Health, and Stigma in Nepal

Brandon Kohrt, Ian Harper

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Anthropologists and psychiatrists traditionally have used the salience of a mind-body dichotomy to distinguish Western from non-Western ethnopsychologies. However, despite claims of mind-body holism in non-Western cultures, mind-body divisions are prominent in non-Western groups. In this article, we discuss three issues: the ethnopsychology of mind-body dichotomies in Nepal, the relationship between mind-body dichotomies and the hierarchy of resort in a medical pluralistic context, and, finally, the role of mind-body dichotomies in public health interventions (biomedical and psychosocial) aimed toward decreasing the stigmatization of mental illness. We assert that, by understanding mind-body relations in non-Western settings, their implications, and ways in which to reconstitute these relations in a less stigmatizing manner, medical anthropologists and mental health workers can contribute to the reduction of stigma in global mental health care.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)462-491
Number of pages29
JournalCulture, Medicine and Psychiatry
Volume32
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Mind–body dichotomies
  • Stigma
  • Ethnopsychiatry
  • Psychosocial
  • Nepal

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