Seeing Depression Through a Cultural Lens

Barry S. Fogel is an academic psychiatrist and neurologist, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and a physician at the Brigham and Women's Hospital Center for Brain/Mind Medicine. He has devoted his career to the study and improvement of care at the interface of psychiatry, neurology, and general medicine. His current academic focus is relating transpersonal identity to the presentation, outcomes, and optimal treatment of patients with psychiatric, neurological, and general medical comorbidity.Xiaoling Jiang is a scholar of comparative literature and culture. She received her higher education in China, Japan, and the United States. She served on the faculties of Kobe University and Harvard University, and was on the editorial board of Culture Studies, China's leading journal of comparative culture. Her current academic focus is the mental health of Asian college students in English-speaking countries and its relationship to issues of cultural identity and cultural conflict.

Depression is a leading cause of suffering and disability worldwide, and suicide is a leading cause of death in younger people and a remarkably common cause of mortality in older people. Seeing Depression Through a Cultural Lens, the collaborative work of a neuropsychiatrist and a tricultural humanities scholar, explores broadly and deeply how cultural identity and its structural correlates relate to the occurrence, phenomenology, and narratives of depression. The book synthesizes qualitative and quantitative perspectives, theory and practice, salient statistics, and memorable stories from literature, film, and the clinic. It offers readers valuable new perspectives on depression in diverse individuals and populations.

Preface