SSPC 2018 Annual Meeting

The 2018 SSPC annual meeting will critically explore the implicit (or explicit) definitions of culture that are being used in current mental health research and practice. To what extent are process-based definitions of culture replacing or coexisting alongside more static group background-based definitions? Process-based definitions conceptualize culture as a dynamic process of meaning-making that is based on multiple influences from a person’s background, including gender identity, occupation, class, and sexual orientation, to name a few. The impact of these influences become more or less prominent at any given moment, in some settings and not others, and depending on what is “at stake” for the person at the time. This process-based conceptualization coexists with more traditional notions of culture that are rooted in a principal group identity, typically the person’s national or racial/ethnic background.

This meeting will explore various definitions of culture active in mental health work. For example, is culture conceptualized uniformly in key components of DSM-5, such as in the Cultural Formulation Interview and the Culture-Related Diagnostic Issues sections of each disorder? How does serious engagement with process-based definitions affect our established practices, such as the usual medical identification of the patient on the basis of age, gender, and race/ethnicity (e.g. “23-year-old black female”)? How does the global spread ofmental health interventions potentially perpetuate simplistic notions of culture, to the potential detriment of programs? What role does the family play in creating/recreating these cultural influences? Does still make sense to speak of a person’s “culture” in the singular?