Note: [] Korrespondenzadresse: Dr. med. Ernestine Wohlfart, Zentrum
für Interkulturelle Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Supervision (ZIPP),
Transkulturelle Psychiatrie, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie,
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, CCM, Charitéplatz 1, 10117
Berlin. Tel.: +49-30-450517135, Fax +49-30-450517921, E-Mail:
ernestine.wohlfart@charite.de
Abstract: Euroamerican diagnostic categories as stated in the manuals of
ICD-10 and DSM-IV comprise the attempt to integrate psychiatric phenomena and
symptoms as objective entities. They are purported to be universal and assumed
to be free of culture. Former theoretical approaches on diversification
ofmental disorders have been superseded bymeans of objectification, as, for
example, the differentiation between the pathology of conflicts (neurosis) and
the pathology of development (psychosis). Within our increasingly globalized and migratory world, Western
experts are ever more confronted with patients of Non-Western origins. In this
paper, we will discuss how cultural biases that inevitably appear when patients
and caregivers are of diverse backgrounds might decrease in intercultural
settings. In paragraph one, we will reflect on the cultural reference system of
Western/Euroamerican psychiatry and its context. In paragraph two, the history
and approaches of comparative psychiatry and transcultural psychiatry will be
introduced. In paragraph three, still relevant historical texts of African
psychiatrists will show what difficulties evolve when Western reference systems
are transferred into Non-Western contexts. Finally, an ethnopsychiatric
approach will be introduced, combined with casuistics of African patients.
Keywords: Ethnopsychiatric differential diagnosis, cultural specific experience and recontextualization, transcultural psychiatry
