Depression, somatization, and the "new cross-cultural psychiatry". A comment.

Contrary to Smger’s contentlon that the features of depressive dtsorders do not exhlblt slgmficant cross-cultural differences the author uses material from field research m Tatwan and data from recent anthropologlcal and chrucal mvesttgatlons to support the opposite view that such differences extst and are a function of the cultural shaping of normattve and devtant behavior Somatlzatlon amongst Chinese depresstves IS used as an illustration Thts dtscrepancy reflects substantial changes m the nature of more recent cross-cultural studies by anthropologists and psychlatnsts, changes which are glvlng rise to a new cross-cultural approach to of that approach are descrtbed psychlatrlc issues Some features and tmphcatlons