Social and cultural representations of mental diseases in Arabic world

Abstract

Humans has been trying since ancient times to provide explanations for mental illness and methods of its treatment in these attempts, he builds his social, cognitive and cultural perceptions about mental illness and methods of its treatment from various sources. These perceptions formed a cultural asset accumulated over generations. Despite scientific progress and the spread of health culture, they did not eliminate the use of this cultural asset in dealing with the disease. large sectors of society still derive their different perceptions and interpretations of mental illness from diverse cultural heritage such as rituals, social customs, values and traditions...In this sense, the disease and its treatment become as much a cultural fact as a medical one. Thus, the nature of mental illness needs an explanation that goes beyond the social and cultural structure of the individual, because it is the cultural affiliation that gives him the framework through which the factors that led to the emergence of mental illness are explained