Psychiatry, Nature and Culture, From Singular to Universal.
This book is the product of the First International Congress that has been organized by GLADET, which was successfully held on April 17-20, 2008 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
GLADET or Group Latino Americano de Estudios Transculturales, A.C. (Group of Latino American for Study of Transcultural Psychiatry) is revived under the leadership of Professor Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo, a cultural psychiatrist and anthropologist, presently working as a faculty member at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. The committee members of GLADET are composed of a group of colleagues from Mexico and various countries in South America, including: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Perú, and Venezuela.
The first international congress included many colleagues not only from Central and South America mainly, but also from Spain with a Latino background. Furthermore, many international colleagues from Europe, North America and Asia took a part of the congress to support this special event. For the scientific program, in addition to plenary lectures, 20 symposia were held including topics of various kinds, as reflected by its theme: Psychiatry, nature and culture: from singular to universal.
This book is composed of selected articles from papers that were presented at the congress. The authors are mainly from Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela. It also includes articles presented by colleagues from Spain, France and Andorra in Europe and USA and Canada in North America. The articles not only included issues related to Latin America but also those related to culture and literature, human psychology and others.
The need of concern and attention to cultural aspects of human psychology and behavior as well as clinical assessment and care of patients has become a common knowledge and forceful movement around the world. It is very important not only to develop cultural psychiatry knowledge and experience locally in its own region but also particularly pertinent to compare with that derived from other regions and cultures. There is a great need of communication, sharing, and comparison to obtain the higher level of understanding. This is the base for the establishment of World Association of Cultural Psychiatry, to promote the development of cultural psychiatry around the world.
In this regard, the reviving of GLADET for the Latino American is very significant and the publication of the product of the congress is very important. It provides the opportunity for colleagues from Mexico and various countries in South America to get together, to identify them a group, to examine and learn together what the cultural issues that need attention related to people living in Central and South America with Latino cultural background. But furthermore, it provides an opportunity to connect to cultural psychiatrists from various regions of the globe. We are very pleased that GLADET is affiliated with the World Associations of Cultural Psychiatry, to work together with colleagues from Europe, North America, Asia and other parts of the globe to promote the knowledge and experiences relating to culture and mental health and cultural psychiatry.
We congratulate under the editorship of Professor Sergio J. Villaseñor Bayardo, this book is published which will be enjoyed not only by colleagues with Latino American background but also by colleagues with other regions and cultural background.
Wen-Shing Tseng, M.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Hawaii School of Medicine, and
President, World Association of Cultural Psychiatry
November 10, 2008