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The central theme of this collection of essays is 'the variable effect of culture or cultural stress on mental health'. Most of the contributors are anthropologists and sociologists but there are also papers by other social scientists and by psychiatrists. Only one psychoanalyst, Abram Kardiner, contributes an essay.
Anthologies are frequently, often rightfully, criticized for lack of systematic treatment of topics. None of the contributors to the present volume attempts to treat the subject of culture and mental health systematically or comprehensively, yet, in the opinion of the reviewer, this is an asset rather than a liability. The reader finds a variety of colorful information from different parts of the world and he learns about so many different influences of cultural factors on mental health that he realizes that a comprehensive theory would be an oversimplification.
Only a few representative essays can be considered here. Irving Hallowell discusses problems of psychic stress and culture patterns, and fear and anxiety as cultural and individual variables in a primitive society, using material from his extensive research with Indian tribes. Anthony F. C. Wallace contributes an essay on certain features of Iroquois religious psychotherapy. Melford E. Spiro presents verbatim reports of interviews with mentally sick persons on a tiny atoll in the Central Carolines. H. B. M. Murphy's essay on culture and mental disorder in Singapore will be of particular interest to those concerned with problems of method in research. William