Culture and Globalization in Relation to Mental Health

People all over the world are implicated in individual problems of living, interacting with one another and the environment, trying to understand the purpose of our lives, working out in practice how we get along with one another and, finally, dealing with the end of life as individuals. We tend to address these issues not only in concert with others, as communities and societies, but also as individuals. However we think of ourselves at any particular moment, we are all biological, social and spiritual beings, essentially the same. In that sense, we are global people. But over the centuries of our existence as human beings, groups of people as communities, nations and families have developed ways of negotiating their journeys through life, relating to whatever environment they find themselves in and changing aspects of it to suit their needs, and dealing with problems (though not necessarily overcoming them). And these ways became set into traditional ways of behaviour, belief, world-views and so on—they became ‘cultures’. And now we hear a lot about ‘globalization’ without any clear definition of the term or a consistent understanding of what it means (see below). The purpose of this chapter is to explore briefly the connection between culture—more specifically cultural diversity—across the world and the diverse meanings attached to globalization in relation to mental health and mental health services.