Thomas Schrader - Health and Globalization - 4/30/12

            These two chapters from “Crazy Like” tie in to my final paper topic on language, and how Western language is possibly redefining other cultures.  The author explains that it took more than fifty years for anorexia to be named, categorized, and popularized by Western mental health professionals. Similarly, when it comes to depression, there are critical differences how Japanese cultures define this concept, which they refer to as Yuutsu or ki ga fusagu.  These native terms refer more to bodily sensations, which differ drastically from home Westerners mainly define depression as a mental health issue.

            Initially, I was very troubled by the idea that the West may be actually responsible, in part for increases not only in the diagnoses of depression, but also in the actual cases of the disease just so they SSRI drug can be sold for profit. This drug has not even proven to be effective in most cases. Nonetheless, it has proven profitable. Accepting depression as a disease only came through heavy marketing tactics, ones that worked on both ordinary citizens and doctors’ perception. In some ways, it inspired people to see their doctors rather than rely on themselves or families to get better if something was actually wrong. With the rates of suicide in the region, this is definitely a good thing. But saying these people are “depressed” doesn’t hold much meaning under the cultural context. So cultural conception surrounding depression were able to be shifted over time, not necessarily to help people but to sell a basically ineffective drug. This is not so much surprise as the West has come to the rescue before in 1859 during the cholera epidemic, increasing the validity of Western science in this region.  Globalization of medical concepts has therefore created a constant worry “over the slightest changes in their health, and [have] consequently become more vulnerable to illness.” The author is basically saying that now that this dialogue has become ingrained, in part, to the public consciousness, it is increasing the levels of illness.

            What was most concerning was that the medicine has not even shown to work or even increases ones risk for suicidal thoughts. Once a society that was built on “affinity for states of sadness” and melancholy is now oversensitive to fears of a harmful disease. It is not to say that there was not already a high risk for suicide, depression, and death in Japan before this, but it has not helped. In the West, it is clear that we could not see why Japan would not benefit completely from our insistence on providing medical advice. Clearly, however, there is more about the culture we have yet to fully care to explore.

            Anorexia is another misunderstood medical condition. In the U.S. and other Western countries, it has been accepted as a result of harmful media messages and images which mostly women (though men too) have internalized. To a degree these images are assumed to make us become fat-phobic. For individuals who internalize this feeling to a more intense degree, eating disorders can form. The researcher the author discusses, however, noticed a very different symptoms cluster when it came to diagnosing anorexia in Hong Kong. Among the affected, the girls were not trying to obtain a certain image of beauty nor were they afraid of getting fat. That sort of meaning did not come through the interviews that were done. The culture they come from is not one that builds off this notion of beauty. Many of the girls weren’t even from cities but from more rural areas. Thus, Western media did not seem to be the defining factor that led these girls to anorexia. The girls knew what they were doing; they did not see themselves as fat. Again, it seems that cultural meanings are very different even when it seems that we are all talking about the same thing.

            What was sad was that this condition did not even have a name. This too, I feel, is harmful for these individuals. How do you diagnose a problem or talk to someone about a personal problem when it has no name, no meaning within their culture? From West, meaning was given but it was supplemented with certain false messages and causes as well. It didn’t translate over entirely clear.

            Hopefully, research like this is not completely ignored. Sensitivity must be included when trying to start a dialogue about such serious issues. The Western way is not the only way, that is for sure.