The psychiatric diagnosis depends to a certain extent on culture. The first to address this issue was Kraepelin during his trip to Java in 1904. More than a hundred culture-bound syndromes were then described in various parts of the world, especially in developing countries. In fact, culture is not only different from one society to another, but also in the same society with a multitude of “sub-cultures” representing a patchwork. The reality is that each culture evolves in time from highly specific beliefs and behaviours towards a globalized universal culture.

The impact on the perception of mental disorders, the way to manage and treat them, including traditional healing, is important in the way these disorders manifest themselves. This is how, for example, depression can evolve from “possession depression” to “persecution depression” to “guilt depression”, to “post-modern depression” when the diagnosis is made by the patient and the treatment technically discussed with the doctor. Suicidality will go from almost zero to a high rate along this progression. Historically, this evolution happened in all societies, including the most developed, and the gap between cultures is rapidly shrinking.

This is why cultural sensitivity is important in psychiatry for daily practice, can help set up a better diagnosis and treatment, but does not represent a major factor in the construction of a classification.