Cultural Contextualization of Diagnostic Signs, Symptoms and SYmbols in International Mental Health:

Abstract

Mental health professionals in many university, colleges and cities are more frequently coming in contact with clients whose different cultural upbringings demand more diagnostic care and flexibility. Normative dianostic tools such as DSM-III-R should be culturally contextualized when used with this population to avoid imprecise and inelegant diagnostic results. This article re-examines the importance of socio-cultural variables to the etiology of mental functioning, and evaluates areas in which some DSM-III-R categories might need to be "culturally contextualized" to avoid weak and potentially imprecise mental health analyses of foreign students. Some alternative or complementary diagnostic methods are proposed for a better analysis and understanding of international mental health.