John P. Spiegel

The Relationship of Culture Value Orientation Change and Rorschach Indices of Psychological Development

The relation of culture change to psychological stress was investigated in a sample of second generation Greek-Americans undergoing the acculturation process. The sample was subdivided into four sub-groups on the basis of sex and social class (lower class-middle class) and positioned on a continuum of progressive stages of acculturation. The relation of culture change to psychological stress was then examined in each group separately. An objective measure of culture change based on a theory of variations in value orientations and an objective measure of psychological stress based on genetic theory were employed. It was found that the position of a sub-group on the acculturation continuum alone was not related to the degree of stress evidenced in the psychological measure. It was rather the degree to which American value orientations were internalized by members of each sub-group that was related to stress. Intra-group correlations between the measure of culture change and the measure of psychological stress increased in magnitude along the sub-group continuum of progressive stages of acculturation.

Mental Health and Culture

Dr. Leon presented us with a series of vignettes as concrete examples of how one delivers mental health services and how one is influenced by and collaborates with a set of beliefs and perceptions which are culturally molded. This leads me to a criticism. Too often, at this conference, we have heard vast and somewhat empty generalizations about the state of the world as it applies to the mental health movement. Some of these generalizations have been full of doom and gloom — the world is going to pieces and poverty is spreading all over the place and we will never have enough resources and we have to be terribly, terribly concerned. That raises our anxiety and, although anxiety sometimes moves people to action, sometimes it moves them to inaction. On the other hand, some of the generalizations we have heard have been full of promise. As Dr. Pierce said yesterday, we know enough. All we have to do is roll up our sleeves and apply ourselves, and we will be able to put the mental health movement forward wherever we are working. We have swung between pessimism and optimism at this conference. What I have missed are concrete examples of what you do for wherever you are in relation to whatever culture you are working in. I thought that Dr. Leon’s examples of what he has done and what he has experienced are the kind of examples that we need, so that we can function in a way to advance things, particularly in under-developed countries. I admired Dr. Leon’s reference to his own experience as a child in the treatment of “susto”, that is, his experiencing “susto”, which is the loss of soul, and his treatment by a native healer, the “limpiadora”. This personal experience is extremely important, so that we know the sort of background from which the person delivering mental health services in a cultural context comes.