My conversation with Ethan Watters:
"To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant; to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures..." John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Globalization of Mental Illness
Just as American culture is homogenizing the world, with respect to everything from movies to junk food, so to is it globalizing the human mind itself. In his new book Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche,
science writer Ethan Watters shows that we are not only changing the way the world understands and treats mental illness, but that we are actually trying to redefine the symptoms of others to fit into our own pharmacologically driven solutions. Good for big pharma, bad for diversity and human compassion.
My conversation with Ethan Watters:
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My conversation with Ethan Watters: