Cultural Formulation: A Reader for Psychiatric Diagnosis

The publication of the Cultural Formulation Outline in the DSM-IV represented a significant event in the history of standard diagnostic systems. It was the first systematic attempt at placing cultural and contextual factors as an integral component of the diagnostic process. The year was 1994 and its coming was ripe since the multicultural explosion due to migration, refugees and globalization impact on the ethnic composition of the U.S. population made it compelling to strive for culturally attuned psychiatric care. Understanding the limitations of a dry symptomatological approach in helping clinicians grasp the intricacies of the experience, presentation and course of mental illness, the NIMH Group on Culture and Diagnosis proposed to appraise, in close collaboration with the patient, the cultural framework of patients' identity, illness experience, contextual factors, and clinician-patient relationship, and to narrate this along the lines of five major domains. By articulating the patient's experience and the standard symptomatological description of a case, the clinician may be better able to arrive at a more useful understanding of the case for clinical care purposes. Furthermore, attending to the context of the illness and the person of the patient may additionally enhance understanding of the case and enrich the data base from which effective treatment can be planned.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction Part 2 Historical and Conceptual Background of the Cultural Formulation: Section Introduction Chapter 3 Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Cultural Perspective Chapter 4 The Cultural Context of Diagnosis and Therapy: A View From Medical Anthropology Chapter 5 Help-Seeking Pathways: A Unifying Concept in Mental Health Care Chapter 6 On Illness Meaning and Clinical Interpretation: Not "Rational Man" but a Rational Approach to Man the Sufferer / Man the Healer Chapter 7 On Culturally Enhancing the DSM-IV Multiaxial Formulation Chapter 8 Cultural Comments on Multiaxial Issues Part 9 Development and Characteristics of the Cultural Formulation: Section Introduction Chapter 10 Cultural Formulation: Development and Critical Review Chapter 11 Cultural Formulation of Psychiatric Diagnosis Chapter 12 Cultural Formulation and Comprehensive Diagnosis Chapter 13 Issues in the Assessment and Diagnosis of Culturally Diverse Individuals Part 14 Reflections and Prospects on the Cultural Formulation: Section Introduction Chapter 15 Framing Research on Culture in Psychiatric Diagnosis: The Case of DSM-IV Chapter 16 The Place of Culture in DSM-IV Chapter 17 Using the DSM-IV Cultural Formulation to Teach Psychodynamics Chapter 18 Introducing the Cultural Formulation to Mental Health Care in Stockholm, Sweden Chapter 19 The Cultural Interview in the Netherlands: The Cultural Formulation in Your Pocket Part 20 Clinical Case Illustrations on the Cultural Formulation: Section Introduction Chapter 21 Psychosis Following Qi-Gong in a Chinese Immigrant Chapter 22 Diagnosis and Treatment of Nervios and Ataques in a Female Puerto Rican Migrant Chapter 23 Treatment of an Indian Woman with Major Depression by a Latina Therapist: Cultural Formulation Chapter 24 Cultural Formulation: Depression and BAck Pain in a Young Male Turkish Immigrant in Basel, Switzerland Chapter 25 Cultural Formulation Psychiatric Diagnoses: Disturbance of Mental and Spiritual Balance in a Javanese Woman

About the Author :
Juan E. Mezzich, M.D., Ph.D. is currently President of the World Psychiatric Association. An author or co-author of over 200 scientific journal articles and book chapters, he is professor of psychiatry and director of the Division of Psychiatric Epidemiology and International Center for Mental Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University. Giovanni Caracci, M.D. is professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University. Formally he was vice chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He lectures widely on urban medicine.

Review :
Mezzich and Caracci certainly deserve immense admiration for willingly straying into territories where biological determinists and nosological pedants normally hunt.... A revolutionary book cloaked in establishmentarian language.