Different views decide different therapies 简单探讨中西方对待精神疾病的看法.doc

Different views decide different therapies It is reported that mental health problems in China are very serious and mental illnesses head the list of the total burden of disease. In China, mental illness accounts for about 20% of the total burden of disease, and there are 16 million people with serious mental disorders. In America, mental illness is also a common disease. According to the survey, every five people in America will have one person with a mental illness, and there are 11.4 million adults in the United States suffering from severe mental illnesses. From this information, we know that mental illnesses really should cause alarm and attention. Obviously, if we want to cure of these mentally ill people, we need to know the nature of their mental illnesses then find some symptomatic treatments. So the different views about the nature of mental illnesses between China and America will lead to their different therapies. In America, the definition of mental illness is based on the syndrome of abnormality, which contains “Four Ds”: deviance, distress, dysfunction and danger. To be precise, deviance means they have unusual and strange behaviors; distress means they have personal suffering; dysfunction means they cannot work and lead a normal life; danger means they have the risk of harm, to self or others. These “Four Ds” give us a general explanation of abnormality and a general method to define the performance of mental illness. Through the early American history of psychopathology, we find Americans believe that there are three causes leading to abnormal behaviors: supernatural causes, physical causes, and psychological causes. With the different cognitive levels about the source of abnormality, different symptomatic treatments gradually appear. For supernatural causes, mental health problems are considered forms of demonic possession until the 18th century. In order to dislodge devil from their head, people create exorcism, ostracism, even cruel trephinatio