Mentally Ill West Indian Immigrants

Abstract

At present there exist in the literature numerous references to mental illness in different cultures; these vary from consideration of disorders peculiar to certain cultures, e.g. Koro, Latah, Amok, Wihtigo, etc., well reviewed by Yap (Yap, 51) to the problems of acculturation and mental illness. Examples of the latter include the studies of Tooth and Carothers, the latter suggesting that Westernization and detribalization increased the incidence of psychosis in Africans (Carothers, 2; Tooth, 45). Slotkin (42) pointed to the paranoid schizophrenia phenomena among acculturated Menomini. Hallowell (14, 15) found significant Rorschach differences between acculturated and unacculturated Salteaux.