#culture bound syndrome

[victusinveritas]

All found on the Depths of Wikipedia's Instagram.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The really crucial point that we're not grappling with at all is, even the diagnosis of gender dysphoria itself, whatever you want to call it - we've got the World Health Organization calling it "gender incongruence," we've got the DSM calling it "gender dysphoria," in the past it was gender identity disorder - you've really got to look at, is this even real?

Is this-- as far as I'm concerned it is a culture-bound syndrome that appeared at this time and in this place, and because it's in the symptom pool-- I love Edward Shorter's concept of the "symptom pool," which is the pool of legitimate mental health diagnoses that exist in any culture, in any time.

And so, what you have is a bunch of unhappy people, people who are in a state of distress and mental fragility, and what they do, they select a diagnosis from the symptom pool of their time. Right now, they can select gender dysphoria and then they apply that to their lives, and it feels very real, and it feels very-- it feels totally legitimate to them.

But then they go, and they show up at gender clinics and they've given themselves this diagnosis. And the madness is the fact that in gender clinics, nobody questions the diagnosis. Even though it is as culture-bound in my opinion as like if we had the epidemic of multiple personality disorder in the 1980s and 1990s. That was, it spread like wildfire. It just, it was an epidemic. And then it disappeared, because it was based entirely on something completely nonsensical that had no science and no evidence to it.

The same thing is happening now. Gender identity ideology, this whole trans rights movement, has created a culture-bound syndrome of gender dysphoria and people, unhappy people are just applying that label to their lives. But it's not necessarily-- it's not real in the sense that, you know, cancer is real, or diabetes is real. And yet, we're treating it with this harsh, brutal medical pathway that is as extreme as cancer treatment, and that-- Really, I think a focus on what exactly the diagnosis is, is absolutely essential to avoid misdiagnosis. To avoid all of these kids, maybe they're autistic and they're interpreting the difficulties with autism as a sign that they're transgender.

--

Full video:

[joons]

unfortunately this month's emotional meltdown also took place immediately before the onset of our period. these strange coincidences continue to mount, but after careful consideration and candy, we have determined that there is no need to look further into it. - management

[kragehund-est]

folk illness, also known as culture-bound syndrome, is a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific culture. it is a considered a type of behavioral epidemic triggered by the power of suggestion, because you believe it is a real illness, you can "contract it".

some notable examples: "running amok", a hysteria that leads to violent behavior in malaysia. "windigo psychosis" from the great plains, a cannibalistic urge brought on by intense hunger or greed. "hwa-byung" of korea, in which women report feeling an intangible mass suppressing their hunger.

i've been researching what may well be a new folk illness. not specific to any region, but tied to the culture of the internet. especially common in women (though, men experience it too), often confused with common ailments. it shares many traits with the stomach flu, menstrual cramps, IBS, etc. ailments that cause abdominal discomfort, but there are noticeably time when patients exihibit symptoms with no underlying cause. that combined with the fact it is a noticeable cultural trend leads me to my conclusion.

i suggest that Tummy Hurt be classified as the newest culture-bound syndrome.

[self-dx-culture-is]

Self dx raynauds syndrome + autism culture is not being able to handle slightly uncomfortable (to "normal" people) levels of hot or cold but also needing your room to be a specific temperature for your brain to do anything and it's outside the comfortable bounds

Le sigh

-CCC

.

[pietroleopoldo]

Reading about culture bound syndromes in English Vs in my native language is very interesting because I have definitely seen Italian scholars suggesting that DID is a culture bound syndrome (being almost not-existent outside of the US and maybe Canada) but I have never seen it considered that way in english-language writings

[the-dear-skull]

I do find it interesting that the most well known culturally bound syndromes are Wendigo psychosis and Kuru.

Completely different cultures on completely different sides of the world both with a preoccupation with the consumption of human flesh, but in completely different ways.

[captainkirkk]

I'm normally a very slow reader of published novels, but I devoured The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard and now I can NOT stop thinking about it.

Everyone who has read my Fire Lord Zuko content knows how much I love 1) people of power working tirelessly to make the world a better place for all; and b) kings, slowly being crushed under the weight of their crown and duty, finding love and care in their loyal servants and staff

Except this story is more. The Emperor is worshiped and treated as a god, bound by extreme taboos and protocols that he can't break. It's about his staff (his found family) looking BEYOND the exterior of godhood and finding the human being underneath - who is dying under the weight of being the Emperor - and deciding to reach out, even if by acknowledging his humanity they are technically breaking many laws.

God this book is about so many things, including:

Found family can be the Last Emperor and his senior members of staff

The Emperor learning how to be human again with the help of his friends

There's no romance in this book. The deep friendships are the beating heart of this story, and they very much Love each other.

Breaking down a previously corrupt imperial empire through hard work and radial reforms, leading to sweeping changes including UNIVERSAL INCOME

Embracing cultural heritage, even in the heart of the imperial palace. Our main character is both one of the highest ranking members of government and from an islander culture, and he dedicates himself to both

The struggle for your family (who have a case of tall poppy syndrome, and live far far away from the capital and palace) to see you as a respected adult and understand all of your (many, MANY) achievements, even when you're very literally brought the Emperor home with you.

This book has some BEAUTIFUL confrontations, take-downs, and revelations based on the past two points (and more). If you underestimate or insult our main character, You Will Regret It. Watching him lose his temper is a glorious thing to behold.

Anyway I'm pretty sure this just became my all-time favourite book, because it's beautifully written and touches on all of my favourite tropes.

[vitaminseetarot]

PAC: An Exchange For Your Desire 🦇🔮

Hey y'all, I'm back for another reading on this night of Halloween. Hope you're having a whimsical fun night. This PAC is inspired by recently watching Hocus Pocus 2. It was a pretty fun romp which made some good callbacks to the original.

I won't explain why the title relates to the movie to not spoil it, but I wanted to dive into a darker reading for this season. To acquire what you want, something must be exchanged. For this reading, we'll be exchanging away fears, doubts, and limiting beliefs for what aligns with our ideal life. But what will it be for you?

Pile 1 - Red, Candle 💓🔥 Pile 2 - Green, Cat 💚🐱‍🐉 Pile 3 - Purple, Book 💜📖

Pile 1 - Red, Candle 💓🔥

Temperance, Eight of Pentacles, Three of Pentacles; Tiger; Radiant; "the infinite ocean of ideas we're all allowed to swim in"; 12 - Let it Out! Dare to be Heard. In Your Darkness & Your Light.

Hey there, pile 1. There's something glittery and warm about your reading. Bright, excited, festive. You may be artistic in nature, or you've been feeling an extra bout of creative inspiration lately. You have so many rich avenues to explore, I feel more than one thing may be calling you (like pursuing jewelry making and crocheting) or you are skilled in many areas. You might have one idea that stands out and shines more brightly than the others. Yet while you yearn to reach for it and claim it as yours, a strange force pulls you back. The fog whispers that you have to be even-keeled, fold back, and not reveal too much of yourself. But this idea might be taking you down a path uncharted, where no one can easily hold your hand to guide you with advice. It may be completely against an agreed code or standard. I'm hearing possibly provocative, your work could stir up energies that would rather stay sheltered and dormant. It may feel overwhelming to even think of committing to the concept.

Perhaps you've been given word over the years that it's better to always be modest about your work. It could be that you were taught to always protect your ideas and concepts from outside influence. Maybe even that it's important to listen to others' advice when it came to analyzing your creative vision, that your work should please the masses. These things, in and of themselves, are not necessarily bad. But when it mixes with guilt and imposter syndrome in the same cauldron, things are bound to erupt. The opulent tiger wants to remind you of your inner desire for positive recognition for your original creative ideas. It wants to back in radiance of a vision made clear, a job well done. But the fog mixing in the cool night air distorts your vision, presenting a hundred good ideas while telling you only one will work. Maybe not all of them will work, but out of the infinite pool you have access to, some are bound to be sure winners. It's all a matter of focusing one at a time while knowing that other drafts and concepts will be waiting for you in the wing.

I love this oracle card with the trumpet playing skeletons (doot), it's one of my favorites. It wishes to remind you that you don't have to be afraid to show your work to somebody you trust, as long as you're comfortable in sharing it with them. Something you have created may be eligible to be published somewhere, whether digital or in person. It could be anything from fanfiction to uploading a song online to showing your vase at an art gallery. If you wish for more creative expression and inspiration in your life, you must exchange your fear of letting your projects be seen by others. You must, with eight of pentacles, chip away at the marble by making drafts and scribbling and messing around with your artistic toolbox so that energy that properly flow. Each piece may take time, and that's okay. Needing to rush the process is part of the fear that must be released, as you cannot allow artistic vision to flow on somebody else's schedule. It's the rushing culture that's hurting animation studios nowadays, so I think there is something to slowing down during creation that's needed here. Let your magic shine on its own time.

Pile 2 - Green, Cat 💚🐱‍🐉

Page of Wands, 5 of Swords, VII Chariot; Tapir; Trillion; "Goodnight! also you didn't get enough done today", 58 - Like Ivy, We Grow Best Where There is Room For Us.

Hi, pile 2. Your energy is soft and supportive like a leaf holding a raindrop. Chill, relaxed, here to help others. For the most part, you don't really mind being in your comfort zone, playing to the beat of your own drum while the world around you raves in chaos from the outside. You've been convinced that as long as you play your part and get along, things will work themselves out. In your reading, though, I see a desire for an expansion. There is something in you craving freedom from some kind of restriction. I'm seeing a princess wanting to escape the castle to run into the woods, whether to run from the duties bestowed upon her or from quarrels fuming deep within the palace halls. A princess can be beautiful, kind, erudite, and brave, but it's not until she leaves the crumbling walls behind that the world can really behold those qualities.

You could be looking at the current circumstances and wondering if it's because you haven't applied enough effort or forethought into things that plans haven't worked out or things fell apart, rather than seeing the shaky foundation to start with. Applying a thin coat of paint can't stave off the rotting of wood forever, even if it's made to preserve. In other words, if things aren't working out, try to take a look at your surroundings. Does it support you, does it lift you up? Does it cradle you from harsh influences beyond? Or is it adding to the piling stress and suppressing room for play and adventure? Is it even taking advantage of your good, easygoing nature? Tiny patches aren't going to keep everything held up, and it's only adding to the weight that you desire to release and could lead to burn out. Storytime: I once had to withdraw from my most important class in school and do it over the summer because I knew no amount of shaving off sleep to study was going to make a difference in the grade. The class needed much more nurture and attention than I could give to it at the time. The busy environment just didn't support the studying because of a packed schedule. It ended up being a wise move that worked out, though it didn't seem like it would be that way at first. This is an anecdote but if it resonates with you academically, I would talk to an advisor to decide the best course of action.

The ivy breaking out of the grave shows that you have a free spirit which cannot be tamed down by the obligatory demands of society. There is a strong need to embrace your full authenticity here so to make the changes you want to see around you, and to walk away when your surroundings refuse to change. Like moving away from a noisy apartment because you're staying true to yourself when you say you can't sleep with so much noise. If no amount of communication with the roommates or neighbors will help, moving may be the next best option. You must exchange where you are now for where you want to be next, as you deserve to thrive in a setting that nourishes your mind and soul's unique potential. You must give up the ever-present order to be agreeable to those who disrupt your boundaries and personal peace if you wish to embrace more intellectual and creative freedom, or even just extra sleep at night.

Pile 3 - Purple, Book 💜📖

III Empress, Judgement, XVIII Moon; Hermit Crab; Fire; "i am brand new + teenager me + childhood me + baby me + source"; 61 - Each Morning We May Be Born Anew. What We Do Now is What Matters Most.

How's it going, pile 3? There is a quiet feminine energy to these cards. This pile could be getting in touch with their more magnetic traits, or doing traditionally gentle hobbies to relax. I'm imagining a spa with massage and saunas, where rewinding becomes an activity in itself. I'm seeing a powerful transitional phase here with three major arcana in a row, so it may explain bouts of tiredness and confusion. Being totally switched to On mode would cause firing from every cylinder at this point in time, like a stressed snake biting its tail. Wow, I'm even yawning and tearing up while typing this, so like pile 2 there is a strong emphasis to getting much needed rest. But for you, group 3, I think this rest is really necessary to heal critical parts of you that haven't had the chance to before, things that must be put back in place before you can move forward completely. You're in a phase of deep healing on a physical and emotional level.

When we wash, we shed away old skin, and it's shown here in the cards that this is happening incrementally. As you purge and release old memories and issues of the past, those parts of you will start to feel smaller as you grow and take on greater challenges. The grade school felt big and scary until you were in high school, which by then it felt small and quaint. Much in the way that people dream at night in order to reconfigure the mind, letting go of unwanted information and consolidating important details, this is how your healing process is taking place. It doesn't always feel great in the meantime, but the greater comfort comes from knowing that it's a necessary step. Whoever told you that taking baths was only for cleansing is wrong. It may be why people technically use baths, but taking a shower just to cry and let all the sticky emotions go down the drain is also a valid reason. Whoever told you that you needed to have a good time on your breaks is also wrong. If you're going through an emotional period, every minute spent to give the feelings room to breathe and speak out is worth it. It's like ghost hunting: not everyone understands it until they feel the calm in the air.

This is a delicate phase where you're getting back in touch with yourself again. Exchange away the need to worry about what others may think of your healing process. These things happen in cycles, which don't respond to "now and forever" commands to stop. You get to decide when you're ready to step out of hiding. The only emotion to let go of once and for all is the guilt carried from having so much to feel. It can be infuriating how society makes feeling grief or even moodiness into such a big deal, instead of giving the same compassion that's given to those who are physically unwell. You don't need this kind of guilt, even if it was pushed into your hands by those who can't even utter an apology themselves. Deep emotional restoration is available to you, as you're in a phase where you're transforming and letting baggage fall away to make room for powerful growth. Let the passion rise and fall and exchange the guilt of flying away from the sorrow inflicted upon you. You have a right to heal as you wish.

This reading has not been evaluated by the FDA to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease or infection. Please ask your physician before going online.

2024, @VitaminseeTarot ™

[gaia-prime]

what a horrible and self-centered little man. everyday there is a new headline about migrants drowning, dying from exposure or disease or the endangerment human smugglers and detention centers subject them to. to get into europe. to get into the US, the very same country this selfish prick comes from. the country where he has a job and social support and access to healthcare and has never once been subjected to violence.

this honestly reads like anti trans or anti refugee propaganda. like the far right trying to get westerners to think trans people are delusional (and make no mistake this man is) or that germany is too generous for wasting their resources on (actual) asylum seekers.

if people really think they're part of a group in the middle of genocide, have they tried to seek asylum? something something americans something something do you honestly believe what you're saying or do you just want your tweet to go viral something something

[transmutationisms]

is burnout not real? (genuine)

the exhaustion and illness that people identify as 'burnout' are real experiential phenomena. i don't find the term 'burnout' to be useful because i mostly hear it from white collar and managerial- type workers who have zero interest in solidarity with those they perceive as working 'menial' jobs, and who are SHOCKED that their workplace turned out to be ??kinda exploitative?? and are now using the schema of 'burnout' as basically a class-linked, culturally-bound syndrome that explains away the consequences of capitalist violence as an individual sickness. it's the neurasthenia of the high-powered career worker set

[rosesteeth]

day 28/100 | 100 days of productivity✮⋆˙

05/06/2024 // my last final examination for the second semester is tomorrow, and i am quite nervous since there was not a lot of preparation time and any student of abnormal psych knows the hassle of learning the numerous diagnostic criteria without mixing them up.

— what i did today :

studied the diagnostic criteria for sleep wake disorders + somatic symptom and related disorders

read a paper on culture bound syndromes

revised a paper on media portrayals of disorders

read about sexual and gender related disorders

studied about methods in making therapy more multiculturally sensitive

went through the process of conducting a clinical interview

revised notes on phenomenological social psychiatry, culture & mental illness, and religion/spirituality and mental care

[luxe-pauvre]

Over thirty years of working in Western medicine, I had learned to comply with the increasing need to label everything as if it was an illness, but deep down I believed that this did many patients a disservice. If I had been more truthful with Sienna, I would have said I thought her symptoms indicated a difficulty coping with escalating academic pressures. I would have said they were not an illness, but a sign that the life she had chosen was impacting negatively on her. If she was struggling to achieve her goals, maybe they were the wrong goals. But, in Western society, when things are going badly for a person, medical explanations are often sought because they are found to be more palatable than psychosocial explanations. Western medicine has, in a sense, learned to comply with the needs of the people. Thus, the lines between behaviour and illness, normal and abnormal – even the demarcation between disease and health – have become so blurred that it is possible to give an illness category to almost any person. Once that is done, a person becomes a patient. [...] Dissociation is a normal phenomenon, in which it can be hard to know where normal stops and abnormal begins. That is the same for sleep – we all sleep differently, so, while creating norms within a population is practically possible, it is not as easy to determine exactly the right amount of sleep for each individual. I suppose one could say that abnormality begins the moment a deficiency in either sleep or dissociation leads to significant difficulty functioning in the world. If that is the case, the extreme dissociation Sienna experienced did represent illness and my course of action was the correct one. But that does not allow for the potential effect of labelling a person as ‘ill’. I could have tried harder to avoid a label and frame the discussion in terms of Sienna’s interaction with the world. I chose to offer Sienna a medical classification because that was the only outcome I thought she would accept. In doing so, I accepted the risk of Hacking’s ‘looping’ and ‘classification’ effects and gave her an opportunity to embody a new sick role. That is Western medicine’s culture-bound syndrome – we make sick people. We medicalise difference, even when no objective pathology is available to be found. Sometimes, we are right to do so, but we are also wrong more often than people realise. And while resignation syndrome and Havana syndrome affect small groups of people, when Western medicine introduces new classifications to the world, it does so on a grand scale, without people’s consent, and there is something frightening in that.

Suzanne O’Sullivan, The Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories of Mystery Illness

[detransition]

Where’s the Dysphoria? an excerpt | read the full piece

Imagine a two-year-old boy who likes long hair, sparkly dresses, and dolls. If everyone around him conveys the message, “You’re great how you are! Have fun growing your hair and playing with dolls. You’re a cool kid,” then where would our modern Western notion of “gender dysphoria,” which needs “treatment,” ever creep in?

Imagine everyone around this child supports him: he can play with the other kids who like dolls and be accepted, he is accepted by his family and community, he’s never bullied or mocked, no one at school or in the media ever suggests that his personality and likes or dislikes might mean he’s “really a girl.” And indeed, what could that possibly mean, to “really be a girl,” given that his body just is how it is? His sex characteristics, just like his height or eye color, are unrelated to his personality.

How would this child ever come to believe that his body, his pronouns, or his name are displeasing, if there’s no wrong way to be a boy? How would he come to feel that any of those things need to be changed on the basis of his toys, hobbies, and clothing preferences?

Some people in the 21st century West will answer, “I don’t know. But it just happens. There’s some kind of mismatch between brain and body.”

OK. Gender dysphoria does happen in the 21st century West. […] Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that there is no medical evidence for any kind of brain-body “mismatch,” or even a reasonable hypothesis for how such a mismatch could possibly manifest or be tested.

If this brain-body mismatch were to exist, we should find it —like same-sex attraction—appearing in every time, place, and culture, not just ours. Gender dysphoria should exist across every time and place.

But indeed, you don’t find gender dysphoria everywhere—and therefore you don’t find support for the notion that this form of emotional distress must be treated medically, because that form of emotional distress doesn’t exist in places where gender nonconformity doesn’t need to be corrected at all. 

Gender dysphoria and gender medicine, we need to understand, are recent Western notions, not human universals. Our doctors diagnose gender dysphoria as if it were something like a broken bone—you have X condition, so you need Y treatment. But gender dysphoria is more like [other culture bound syndromes] than it is like a broken bone: all cultures have people with broken bones, but not all cultures experience gender dysphoria, and not all cultures have our notion of “being trans.”

thinking about detransition? you are not alone  

[cbk1000]

if it’s not too late, for the emoji ask game i’d love if you answered 👀 and 🤡

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please! This is still a ways off because I don't intend to start another big WIP until I finish Book of Merthur, but I have an idea that's been brewing for the next Big One that's inspired by the murder politics of Renaissance Italy and the culture/folklore of Wales, so basically I take the two and smash them together like Barbies kissing and create my own little world where Arthur is the son of one of the most prominent, powerful noble households in the country, and Merlin is the unfortunate sucker who decided to save him from an assassination attempt, because he thinks Arthur's a twat, but not quite enough of a twat for him to just let him die, and now he's got a place in the Pendragon household and he and Arthur are both big mad about it. Arthur and Morgana are cousins who are arranged to be married to one another, because rich people love incest, and Morgana plots a coup because if the men can't be responsible with their government, she's taking it away from them.

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh? This one is tough, because "I'm funny" is like the only nice thing my Imposter Syndrome lets me think about my writing, so I have lots of examples. lmao I still think the dick tree is a classic:

'And King Arthur was bound to go first on account of being a silly grandstanding cock; and anon he went with Excalibur girded to him; and anon went Sir Gwaine after him, and Sir Leon, Sir Elyan, Sir Percival, Sir Lancelot, and there came after them the passing fair damosels Guinevere of Camelot/Lyonesse and Hunith formerly of Ealdor; and Igraine formerly of Camelot and currently of Camelot. And thence did they come through the forest and into a clearing wherein there was a passing fair tree in the centre, uncommonly green and full-flowering; and on the tree hung manhoods of divers colours and a great spear* thereby.

(*’Spear’.)

Then sayeth Sir Gwaine thoughtfully, “That’s a tree full of dicks.”'

[rjalker]

So long as the political and economic system remains intact, voter enfranchisement, though perhaps resisted by overt white supremacists, is still welcomed so long as nothing about the overall political arrangement fundamentally changes. The facade of political equality can occur under violent occupation, but liberation cannot be found in the occupier’s ballot box. In the context of settler colonialism voting is the “civic duty” of maintaining our own oppression. It is intrinsically bound to a strategy of extinguishing our cultural identities and autonomy.

The ongoing existence of Indigenous Peoples is the greatest threat to the U.S. settler colonial project, that we may one day rise up and assert our sovereign position with our lands in refutation of the Doctrine of Discovery.

In Custer Died for your Sins, Vine Deloria Jr. idealized “Indigenous peoples not as passive recipients of civil rights and incorporation into the nation-state but as colonized peoples actively demanding decolonization.”

You can’t decolonize the ballot

Since the idea of U.S. “democracy” is majority rule, barring an extreme population surge, Indigenous voters will always be at the mercy “of good intentioned” political allies. Consolidating the Native vote into a voting bloc that aligns with whatever settler party, politician, or law that appears to do less harm isn’t a strategy to exercise political power, it’s Stockholm syndrome.