Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:755-761
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
"Folk" criteria for the diagnosis of mental illness in rural Laos: on being insane in sane places
J Westermeyer and R Wintrob
"Folk" criteria for identifying the mentally ill, as distinguished from
folk theories about the causes of mental illness, have been comparatively
neglected in cultural psychiatry. The authors describe the criteria by
which villagers in Laos labeled 35 subjects as baa (insane). Unprovoked
assaultive or destructive behavior, social isolation, self-endangerment due
to neglect of personal needs, nonviolent but socially disruptive or
inappropriate behavior, and inability to do productive work were found to
be important folk criteria. The authors emphasize that folk criteria for
mental illness are determined primarily by the persistence of socially
dysfunctional behavior rather than by disturbances in thought and affect.
