Hvorfor Våre Behandlingsmodeller Virker Eller Ikke Virker - Psykiatri På Tvers av Kulturgrensene

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of why our mental health models work or do not work in dealing with patients who have a different cultural background from the therapists. The Western world view, core values, linear time conception and adherence to scientific thinking are described together with how these attitudes shape our ways of dealing with patients. A different world view is then described quoting examples from Sami culture in Scandinavia, from the lives of native Americans and from traditional tribal societies in Africa. In this alternative world view the importance of religious beliefs, extended family relationships, different ways of conceptualizing health and disease, an ecologic mind and a circular/cyclic time conception are considered as being of outmost importance for the healing process. People who have grown up in traditional societies are particularly vulnerable in the massive encounter with the western/international culture and often become «losers» with subsequent higher prevalence of certain illnesses. It is necessary for Western trained health professionals to take a more sympathetic view to other cultural backgrounds. In Scandinavia the relevance of this issue is particularly important in relation to the Sami people and foreign immigrants, and therapists should be aware of the principles of cross-cultural communication.