Crazy like Us by Watters Ethan - Admission/Application Essay Example

Book Review- Crazy like Us by Watters Ethan Ethan Watters is an American journalist cum of many books and articles in various magazines. He has also graced many other media outlets, thus gaining popularity for his works. He is known for his articles that are featured in various magazines and newspapers like the New York Times, Spin, the San Francisco Chronicle, Details, Mother Jones among others. This paper seeks to review one of his books, Crazy like Us in details, giving its summary and analyzing his arguments. Watters, in Crazy like Us, aims to demonstrate how America’s perception of mental illness has been transferred to the remaining part of the world. This could probably be attributed to the fact that America as a nation has dominated the world, and thus highly influenced the rest of the nations. This, he points out, is because the rest of the world has homogenized the mental state of everyone in the world. He acknowledges the role of Americans in the generation of therapeutic and treatment, as well as theories explaining the human psychology. Drugs meant for relieving mental illnesses are exported from the States to other nations, as well as categories of mental disorders and their characteristics. In so doing, America has defined mental disorders and health (Watters, 2010). What is now clear is that this changes the world’s perception of mental illness as well as the illnesses themselves by defining them. Traditionally, there existed local beliefs that had shaped the perception of mental illness. However, Americanization has discounted these beliefs, changing them rapidly. Watters emphasizes that the American way of perception and treatment of these mental illnesses is only spreading the disorders further. According to him, mental illnesses do not present themselves similarly in different countries as people perceive. Watters provides various examples to illustrate his arguments from all over the world. For instance, Westerners counseled Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka who were traumatized by the catastrophe. This is because the locals were grieving due to the losses and destruction and needed psychological healing to go on with life. Instead of helping the post tsunami victims, the counselors trampled on the local expression of suffering, grief and healing. He further provides more examples from Hong Kong, where an epidemic of ‘America’s anorexia nervosa’ was sparked by the death of a teenager (Watters, 2010). He also points out how an American drug company has campaigned for the change in how Japanese view depression, in the process marketing the disease as well as the drugs. What Americans do not understand, according to Watters, is that mental illnesses like eating disorders manifested themselves differently in different countries, up until the 80s. The cases changed completely after that, a fact that could be related to the widespread publications of western research on mental illnesses. By presenting these texts and arguments, Watters aims to provide America with a reflective look on their own culture and its effect on other cultures. By doing this America will realize that they have, over time, shaped and created mental illness and health ideas. Being a dominant nation, it has taken the role of providing solutions to the world’s problems, including being therapists. From this argument, Watters suggest that Americans learn from other cultures instead of discounting their beliefs. There are some theories that have been suggested to explain the occurrences of mental illnesses and health issues. These theories are categorized into sociological, biological, and psychological aspects. Sociological perspective of mental illnesses suggests that causes of these diseases include the external factors of a person, be it the person’s social situation or his or her environment. These theories are further divided into three groups, depending on the causal factors, into stress, structural strain, and labeling theories. This paper seeks to look at the stress theory in relation to Watters Crazy like Us. The Stress theory, researched by Selye, found out that negative stimuli or stress elicits responses of flight or fright, resistance and/or exhaustion among the exposed subjects. Diseases are introduced when one is subjected to negative stress for a long time. According to the stress theory, major life events expose people to anxiety and depression, and the negative the events, the more the severity of mental disorders that result. In Crazy like Us, such negative events include the tsunami havoc in Sri Lanka. This is because stressors render people susceptible to the effects of mental disorders, like clinical depression. Non-normative, uncontrollable, or unexpected events have been attributed to the development of mental disorders more frequently as opposed to other causes. Coping has been found to buffer the negative effects of stress. Thus, people with good coping mechanisms are less affected by stress and the resultant anxiety and mental disorders than those without it. People should make use of coping strategies like family and friends, as well as their personal motivation like self-esteem to cope with stress. Watters notes that the social and cultural structure surrounding an individual has a great impact in their well being and stigma associated with mental illnesses. An example is the Zanzibar case where kinship and cultural beliefs helped schizophrenic patients in controlling the disease. In sociological terms, these methods employed by the locals in Zanzibar served as coping strategies for the patients. Family and friends provided the love that patient needed, while their beliefs provided the calmness and raising self-esteem thus reducing stresses that caused the disease. Stress theory has advantages over the other sociological perspectives of mental illnesses and health. This is because it bases its assumptions on the current state of a person. It also attempts to illustrate why some groups of people are more vulnerable to mental illnesses than others are. However, this also poses a disadvantage since it focuses on groups of people as opposed to individuals. To treat and prevent the mental disorders that arise from stress, changing one’s environment and adopting coping strategies are suggested. As mentioned above, there are other sociological perspectives of mental illnesses apart from stress theory. The labeling theory suggests that when the society labels some people as deviants, then the labeled individuals become deviants for sure. These have broken some norms at some point. When such deviants are of a lower social status than those imposing control on them, like law enforcers, psychiatrists and judges, then they can be forced into treatment. Thus, they are stereotyped as mentally ill and dangerous. As such, they are treated as abnormal and irresponsible people, a fact that make them assume the identity of mental patients. This theory, however, does not discuss what causes the deviant behavior in such people in the first place. The advantage of this theory is that it has emphasized the cons of institutionalizing mental illness patients. Structural theory on the other hand points out that the disadvantaged in the society are more stressed compared to the less disadvantaged. Economic disadvantage has been shown to be the major cause of mental breakdown in individuals. Other approaches explaining mental illnesses include biological and psychological approaches. Biological approaches explain the causes of mental disorders as internal from the physical body. Psychological approaches on the other hand look at the mind as a determinant of mental disorders. Crazy like Us is a readable book that covers Watters’ observations from four different parts f the world and their cultures (Watters, 2010). He travels to Zanzibar in East Africa where he looks at schizophrenia, then to Sri Lanka where he looks at PTSD. In Japan, Watters describes cases of depression while looking at anorexia in Hong Kong. Watters infer that mental disorders are culturally determined and that treatment methods are not universal. In all the four countries of study, Watters noted one similarity. All the mental conditions presented themselves in a manner different from the documented symptoms of the respective diseases by the Western Psychiatrists. In addition, the methods of treatment and dealing with the diseases in these countries were very different from the Western way. Mental illnesses are related to stress, either from internal or external factors. Exposure to these factors renders one susceptible to mental illnesses and the outcome of the stress largely depends on the person’s ability to cope with the stress. The society can help one deal with the stress and its effects. For instance, the mentality of familial love raises one’s calmness and trust in them, which in turn raises their self-esteem, rendering them immune to stress. Watters’ book is an informative work that should be read by all. He presented his arguments in a clear manner, and the sociological perspectives on mental illnesses and health supported his work. Work Cited Watters E. (2010) Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of The American Psyche New York: Free Press Read More