Possessed or Crazy?

The overall message, from my point of view, is that all these cultures see mental illness

differently rather than a whole. These cultures see it as a possession of a demon that is

haunting the family or absent minded people walking about and catching it like a cold. That

mental illness has a different meaning to each culture so each culture treat it differently from

ignoring it to simply locking someone away with it as it’s a “burden” on the family of the

sufferer. I kind of knew that some families out there are “burdened” with someone who has a

mental illness in their family. Rather than get help, they want to hide the problem away

because when you’re having a conversation with someone and bring the word “shrink” up,

they’re all the sudden thinking ‘What is wrong with this person, you only see a shrink when

you’re going crazy’. Something I didn’t know from this article is the different amount of

“definitions” these cultures had for mental illness. They all ranged from possession, sorcery,

hauntings, or even shame. I knew that people saw it differently but not this different. I do agree

with the author’s conclusion. That with all these different types of definitions for mental illness,

they all bring about one effect and that’s shame. Who would want to tell others, who view

mental illness as shame, that they might have a problem and will need to possibly see

someone. So I think it’s important that we don’t judge someone who has a mental illness. That

we should be there for them and help. If we stop judging and help then people might be more

upfront about their problems and seek out help which will in turn bring awareness.