Swinging off something I discussed in another place, the Wikipedia list of culture-bound syndromes is fascinatingly odd, although several of them seem to reduce to depression and several more to sexism. I wonder if different Wikipedias have different ones?
But what interests me is this: what with globalisation an’ all, will these get smoothed out by the invisible hand like so many obscure languages, until we’re all crazy according to world-class best practice and international standards?
Or will we get something different? Weird jarring mashups from the grab-bag of available symptoms are a possibility. Try a combination of ufufuyane, tanning addiction, and scrupulosity, or perhaps boufée délirante, smilorexia, and puppy pregnancy syndrome.
That’s if nothing entirely novel emerges.
Perhaps it already has and “Troll (Internet)” should be in the list. Perhaps I should put it there.
this article argues that, like everything else, globalization of mental illness starts with a big dose of Americanization.