{"title":"Neuroanthropology and Body Image: The Impact of Technology and Cultural Shifts on Self-Perception.","authors":"Jônatas de Oliveira","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09907-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09907-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The proliferation of filters, technologies, and aesthetic procedures has contributed to a surge in body image concerns, with individuals now able to purchase and alter specific body parts. This phenomenon intersects with considerations of self-objectification and cosmetic surgery, mediated by factors such as alienation and body image inflexibility. Moreover, cultural shifts, including the pervasive influence of artificial intelligence, shape perceptions and behaviors. Eating disorders, understood through neuroanthropological lenses, highlight the intricate interplay between culture, body image, and vulnerability to illness. Emerging questions revolve around prevention strategies, especially regarding children's exposure to social media and its impact on body image. Recent cultural events underscore contemporary body image ideals, posing challenges for future generations immersed in digital technology. Understanding the intersection of cultural influences, technological stimuli, and individual perceptions is crucial for addressing the evolving landscape of body image and mental health care.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"765-769"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143693956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When Resources Become Stressors: Dynamics of the Stress Process in the Flint Water Crisis.","authors":"Courtney Cuthbertson, Jennifer Lai","doi":"10.1007/s11013-024-09887-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-024-09887-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Disasters create and intensify stress for communities, with many factors contributing to how that stress results in mental health outcomes. Guided by the stress process model, this article presents findings from a qualitative investigation of the meaning of stress among community leaders in the context of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six community leaders in Flint and analyzed using grounded theory techniques. Secondary stressors such as necessary changes to everyday routines, being discredited by government officials, and perceptions of a lack of government action and accountability were perceived to impact the community's mental health, with potentially more influence than the impact of the primary stressor of contaminated water. Findings indicate that both stressors and coping resources evolve with profound intrapersonal impact, such that proposed social coping resources become stressors when they do not meet individual or community needs or expectations.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"544-560"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S Uboldi, A Bortolotti, G Candeloro, A Marasco, F Sardella, M Tartari, P L Sacco
{"title":"From Touch to Mental Imagery: The Embodied Aesthetic Experience of Late-Blind People Engaged in the Tactile Exploration of Enrico Castellani's Pseudo-Braille Surface.","authors":"S Uboldi, A Bortolotti, G Candeloro, A Marasco, F Sardella, M Tartari, P L Sacco","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09904-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09904-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper examines the embodied aesthetic experiences of late-blind individuals during tactile engagements with Enrico Castellani's Pseudo-Braille Surface artwork. The study applies a mixed computational-qualitative approach, utilizing the Atlas-Ti software for semantic analysis of interviews with 21 participants. Categories emerging from the analysis suggest a vivid relationship between touch, mental imagery, emotional well-being, and the creation of meaning. Key findings demonstrate a transformation from a traditional pedagogical approach to an immersive aesthetic experience, marked by a significant meta-cognitive shift, transitioning from practical understanding to haptic contemplation and narrative digression. Sometimes, participants initially experience negative well-being due to difficulties in interpreting tactile stimuli, but this evolves into positive well-being as they engage in an imaginative process, invoking autobiographical memories and personal narratives. The study reveals that this personal and relational encounter with original art enables participants to overcome initial feelings of inadequacy, unlock creative freedom, and attain emotional well-being. The participants' experiences are interpreted in the light of Walter Benjamin's notion of Aura, unveiling the unique and authentic interaction between viewer and artwork in the realm of haptic perception. The results advocate for the inclusion of tactile aesthetics in art appreciation, emphasizing the potential for aesthetic experiences to contribute to the well-being and empowerment of visually impaired individuals.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"725-764"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12374881/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143597259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Yuri's Story: Memory, Relational Healing, and the Reflexive Logics of Art Therapy in Japanese Clinical Psychology.","authors":"Christopher Chapman","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09916-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09916-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mental health care is a vibrant part of child protective services in Japan, and the adoption and utilization of psychotherapeutic techniques from abroad mark a complex site of cross-cultural exchanges. This paper explores how art therapy has been brought into Japan's protection system and its implications for professional practice. Focusing on clinical psychologist Yuri and her narratives on learning art therapy, this paper utilizes an interpretive and phenomenological framework to illustrate the importance of embodied experience in delivering care and how practitioners may reform their perspectives on care by reframing their own traumatic memories. Yuri's art therapy offers a culturally contextualized view of the self as social, care purpose, and resilience.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"892-909"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12374902/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144209888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Excess Stigma and Troubling Messaging: Debates about the Diagnostic Label Chidai for Dementia in China.","authors":"Yan Zhang","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09903-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09903-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Diagnostic labels aim to classify individuals for treatment in clinical settings. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to the troubling messaging when a diagnostic label itself carries severe stigma and how relevant stakeholders react to it. Based on twenty-month fieldwork in Shanghai, this article analyzes the adverse effects of the diagnostic label chidai that is used to describe dementia and the relevant stakeholders' responses to the labeling threat. It focuses on the moral context in which the stigma related to dementia unfolds, the power of the medical term chidai in activating stigma, and the efforts that are put into formulating a stigma-free public health message. I found that the label chidai is not only an instance of excess stigma-that discredits one's cognitive capability and deprives one's moral status-but also an instrument used by medical authorities and governments to protect public safety. The debates on the diagnostic labels are meant to reshape new understandings of dementia and to challenge the power of medical authorities who often neglect humanity and care when they form their judgments and interpretations of disease. This paper contributes to the studies of stigma and dementia activism by highlighting the power of diagnostic labels.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"706-724"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143597104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Elusive Image and the Missing Subject: A Hauntological Approach to Coproduction in Mental Health Research.","authors":"Gaurav Datta","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09917-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09917-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The growing inclusion of people with lived experience and their carers in mental health research begs us to consider how their lived experience influences research. In this commentary, I use photographs to show how I used my personal experience of caring in creative ways to research violence against people with mental illness in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Drawing on Byron Good's use of hauntology and my personal experience, I argue for its adaptation as a framework for both analysis and visual representation using a multilayered auto-visual-ethnographic engagement centered around the local Amtrak station. I elaborate how in the basal layer the photographs stem from the interplay of mental images and ethnographic encounters to explore my subjectivity and intersubjective relations. In the second layer, I use an archival map to tie the photographs to the wider historical context of North Dakota. By doing so, I show how the Amtrak station emerges as a site for chaotic personal narratives and contested histories. In conclusion, I address this method's departure from classical photo-ethnography, arguing that such a hauntologically informed auto-visual-ethnographic engagement could help researchers incorporate their experiences of care and loss in mental health research in meaningful, creative, and sensitive ways.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"910-920"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144267634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fariya Fatima Khan, Muhammad Salman Ul Haq, Asia Ashfaq, Muhammad Saud, Abdullah Ibrahim
{"title":"Monster of the Night: Identifying Pakistani Gender-Based, Religious, and Cultural Influences on Sleep Paralysis Among University Students.","authors":"Fariya Fatima Khan, Muhammad Salman Ul Haq, Asia Ashfaq, Muhammad Saud, Abdullah Ibrahim","doi":"10.1007/s11013-024-09892-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-024-09892-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The present study has explored the folk knowledge about the phenomenon of sleep paralysis in Pakistani society. The research aimed to gain a nuanced glimpse focusing on three major factors, culture, religion, and gender, that influence the lived experiences of those who face sleep paralysis. In this qualitative research, to have a holistic perception of indigenous knowledge about it, we selected both male and female participants who have experienced sleep paralysis. The findings indicate that there is an influence of Pakistani culture and religion regarding the experiences of the people with sleep paralysis, and gender is linked with the folklore on creatures that were linked to fairy tales and Islamic teachings. The study also revealed that Pakistani ethnic diversity has created a pool of versatility for identifying different experiences regarding sleep paralysis. These experiences were not just a part of the medical situation but portrayed the multicultural facets that are embedded in the individuals throughout their lives. Lastly, the study suggests that there is a complexity within the interactions between culture, religion, and gender on sleep paralysis. This needs to be further investigated to create culturally appropriate therapies that may have a favorable effect on both physical and mental health outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"561-584"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143042196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Suppression of Depression as Multimediation: Psychiatric Diagnoses Under Myanmar's Military Dictatorship.","authors":"Stefan Ecks","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09899-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09899-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Myanmar has experienced decades of military dictatorship, civil wars, religious violence, economic crises, and natural disasters. While these conditions would suggest very high rates of depression and anxiety, government statistics report an exceptionally low depression rate of 0.00006%, compared to the global rate of 3.4%. This study combines analysis of epidemiological data, ethnographic observation of clinics, and in-depth interviews. I argue that Myanmar's low depression rates cannot be explained by the usual arguments about treatment gaps, lack of providers, or medication accessibility. Instead, I suggest that the military regime suppresses depression because it sees it as a form of political protest. While conditions like schizophrenia are readily diagnosed and treated as \"purely biological,\" mood disorders are suspect expressions of dissent. Through living value theory (LVT), I explore health as a process of multimediation. The dictatorship's suppression of depression emerges as the strategic muting of medical interventions in favor of amplifying non-medical remediations.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"770-795"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12374911/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143693943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nora S West, Rosette Nakubulwa, Sarah M Murray, William Ddaaki, Denis Mayambala, Neema Nakyanjo, Fred Nalugoda, Heidi E Hutton, Pamela J Surkan, Caitlin E Kennedy
{"title":"Okweraliikirira and Okwenyamira: Idioms of Psychological Distress Among People Living with HIV in Rakai, Uganda.","authors":"Nora S West, Rosette Nakubulwa, Sarah M Murray, William Ddaaki, Denis Mayambala, Neema Nakyanjo, Fred Nalugoda, Heidi E Hutton, Pamela J Surkan, Caitlin E Kennedy","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09912-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09912-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health and illness experiences are positioned within social and cultural contexts. Understanding the mental health and psychological distress of people living with HIV in highly affected communities is critical to addressing their needs and to ensure programming and interventions are targeted and appropriate. Grounded in the ethnomedical theoretical perspective, we conducted qualitative interviews to understand the experience and expression of psychological distress by people living with HIV in Rakai, Uganda. Participants included adults living with HIV (n = 20), health workers (counselors, peer health workers, nurses, n = 10), and key informants (n = 12). Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed/translated, coded, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Two idioms of distress, okweraliikirira (worry/apprehension) and okwenyamira (deep/many thoughts/lots of thoughts), were described as impacting people living with HIV. Both idioms were said to be alleviated by social support or counseling, but if left unaddressed could lead to more severe mental health problems and poor ART adherence. People living with HIV understand their psychological distress through culturally specific idioms; such distress can have deleterious impacts on well-being. Incorporating idioms of distress into screening and treatment for people living with HIV may improve identification of individuals in need and overall health services to address this need.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"857-872"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144006508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Angela Cifuentes, Esteban Radiszcz, Francisco Ortega
{"title":"\"The University Lives Anxiety and De-pression\": Diagnostic Uses and Affective Negotiations in Mental Health Care Services for University Students in Chile.","authors":"Angela Cifuentes, Esteban Radiszcz, Francisco Ortega","doi":"10.1007/s11013-025-09905-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s11013-025-09905-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The expansion of mental health discourses within the university has attained global relevance over the course of the past decade. This article focuses on the Chilean case, exploring the diagnostic uses and affective negotiations on campus. The findings presented are part of a broader qualitative research that examined the interrelations between the neoliberal restructuring of the Chilean university, the modes of anxious affection among students, and the strategies implemented by university mental health services. We argue that, although the neoliberalization of higher education in Chile has driven normative and subjective transformations, the phenomenon of university mental health involves students' agency. Our findings demonstrate that, for both mental health professionals and students, university life serves as a \"catalyst of anxiety.\" Despite the existence of individualized diagnostic conceptions, they also allude to the inequalities inherent in the Chilean educational and health systems. We state that diagnostic uses involve strategies that students and professionals deploy to respond to the demands of adjustment/integration to universities, and even facilitate the possibility of re-imagining futures in the face of experiences of failure. Diagnostic uses engage affective negotiations in everyday situations, thereby configuring university life as a dynamic environment, subject to potential and permanent transformations.</p>","PeriodicalId":47634,"journal":{"name":"Culture Medicine and Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":"796-817"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12374864/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143755086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}