Jadhav S
University College London, UK.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 1996 Winter;42(4):269-86. doi: 10.1177/002076409604200403.
Focusing on the British cultural vocabulary of guilt, fatigue, energy, stress and depression; this paper argues that such vocabularies have their own unique histories and meanings; deeply embedded, in this instance, within "white British and western European" institutions. Predicated on a western epistemology, these constructs developed in response to prevailing concerns at different periods in western history; but are now assumed to be universal natural entities that await further scientific research and investigation. The cross-cultural validity of depression as a universal disorder is therefore dubious and needs an extensive re-examination.