Psychiatry in South-East Asia

Abstract

For the purposes of this paper the South-East Asia region has been taken to include India, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The region thus demarcated is not merely an area of geographic contiguity but also comprised almost entirely of developing countries involved in a process of social change as a result, principally, of exposure to the West. The traditional economy of agricultural self-sufficiency in all these countries is coming to be replaced increasingly by an industrial economy which is essentially tied up with world trade. Most of the countries in the region have emerged from a colonial status into independent states with a renascent and sensitized nationalism. There is in these countries abundant enthusiasm for new goals set up after achieving independence; but this is dampened with a sense of self-doubt that prevails as much amidst the leaders as amidst the led. Thus in this region a generation of people appears to be trying to outlive its history and live on hopes for a new future.