Summary Of Crazy Like Us

Watters’ Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche makes a valid and effective argument about the effect of America’s globalization of mental health. As a result of the West acting as a superiorly equipped culture to deal with mental health, illnesses have been standardized and Watters provides ample evidence of this throughout the book. He also argues that mental health is not separate from culture or context as is displayed through the variability in understanding of mental illness. Throughout the book, Watters maintains a mostly nonpartisan, professional tone like that of any journalist. This tone works well with the subject matter because he is then able to display more biased opinions through the voices of the professionals
How a culture deals with mental health is the result of cultural implications about how not only the mind and body work, but also how the universe works. This includes religion, personal responsibility, and social networks. As a result of the steamrolling of the psyche, other pieces of cultures could get caught up and be steamrolled too. This loss of diversity would highly limit our understanding of the world. Watters doesn’t provide much of a solution to this issue except that Westerners need to acquire an understanding of a culture before bulldozing the existing understandings of mental health. There doesn't seem to be much practicality in simply not sending aid groups to places in need or never allowing Western explanation for health care issues. Rather, there needs to be an increased awareness of the negative potential consequences of these actions. It would be in the interest of society as a whole to write a best practice on how to approach this issue. Despite the lack of solutions, Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche is a well-written book that masterfully illustrates the effects of America’s mindset on other