Crazy Like Us

Fast food and popular culture aren’t the only things that Americans have exported overseas, journalist Ethan Watters claims in this fast-paced and easily readable book. Recently, the American mental health profession has also begun exporting its own understanding of mental illness. Through four case studies examining anorexia in Hong Kong, PTSD in Sri Lanka, schizophrenia in Zanzibar, and depression in Japan, Watters argues that the world is flattening through the global homogenization of mental disorders and their treatment. It’s a fascinating look into an overlooked aspect of the American psychiatric profession, one that will leave readers wondering if our own… show more.