This book was great!

We think of mental illnesses as well-defined syndromes, but there are many cultural beliefs that impact how mental problems are expressed or justified.

As America has exported its culture, it has also changed the expression of mental illness across the world. Of course, it has also changed treatment, with the American emphasis on pharmaceutical drugs now being the standard treatment elsewhere as well.

This book covers how 4 diseases have appeared or changed - anorexia in Hong Kong; PTSD in Sri Lanka; Schizophrenia in Zanzibar; and depression in Japan. All of these perspectives were interesting.

Normally I am very weary of “professional writers” (opposed to those who practice in this field), but Watters did a very good job. I felt this was very objective and thorough, giving decent overviews of the subjects and the dissenting opinions, clarified by the case studies he focuses on.

I go easy on health books for not having a strong narrative structure, but I really shouldn’t. This book was very refreshing because it actually reads like a proper book, while still being informative. It was a pleasure to read.

I recommend!