
This is a PDF download licensed for personal use only - read full licence terms.
By placing your order you agree to the British Psychological Society’s Terms and Conditions. Please also see our Privacy Notice and Cookies Information.
Members receive The Psychologist in hard copy each month, plus online access.
Not eligible to join the Society as a full member, but you still want to receive The Psychologist? Become a Society e-subscriber to gain access online, or an Affiliate Member to receive a hard copy.
Contents
Have you heard of 'brain fag'? 'Ghost sickness'? 'Koro'? All are so-called 'culture bound syndromes' listed in DSM, the latter referring to a person's overwhelming belief that their genitals are shrinking and will disappear.
Why have such syndromes remained largely 'culture bound', while Western concepts have crept across the globe? In 2004 the New York Times wrote that 'the notion that [your soul] can catch cold (kokoro no kaze) was introduced to Japan by the pharmaceutical industry to explain mild depression to a country that almost never discussed it'. That article (see tinyurl.com/a4jh3ac) went on to conclude that 'rather than expanding options for care for those who suffer, the globalization of psychopharmacology may ultimately sow a monocrop of ideas about health and sickness'. In this issue (p.182), Ross White raises a similar possibility: that globalising notions of psychiatric illness may cause more harm than good.
Elsewhere there's our usual serving of articles, interviews, news, reviews, and another excellent contribution from a 'New voice'.
Dr Jon Sutton
Managing Editor
The globalisation of mental illness
Ross White considers the issue
How power affects the brain
Ian H. Robertson on what he has dubbed the 'winner effect'
Involuntary autobiographical memories
Rosemary Bradley, Chris Moulin and Lia Kvavilashvili with some surprising findings and implications
The long reach of the gene
Gary Lewis and Timothy Bates discuss genetic influence on politics, prejudice and religiosity
Children and technology
Jon Sutton talks to Nicola Yuill from the University of Sussex
Letters
Qualitative research and the REF; rape in India; intelligence; diagnosis; new environmental 'Forum' column; and more
Society
President's column; Fellowship; North West/North East of England Branch Conference; and more
Careers and appointments
It's a social psychology special as we meet Elizabeth Stokoe and Mick Billig
Reviews
Terrorist's creed; My Mad Fat Diary; Les Misérables; How to Build a Bionic Man; and apps, radio, and more in our broader section
New voices
Parenting next door to the bogeyman - Suzanne Dash with the latest in our series for budding writers (see www.bps.org.uk/newvoices)
Looking back
The work of Frances Hodgson Burnett and its commentary on mind and body in illness, with Anne Stiles
One on one
...with Shivani Sharma
Series:
SKU: PUB-CAT-1161