Colonial demonisation and distortions of African cultures have resulted in many

misconceptions about African people’s conceptualisations of illness and healing. Much of

what passes for indigenous knowledge on these subjects, is in fact a distortion and is used to make money .

Colonial dehumanisation has even resulted in a distorted understanding of what is

fundamentally wrong. Often, illnesses are perceived from a surface level, and symptoms

are treated, instead of dealing with the source.

The anti-self-attitude is understood as the

attitude displayed by individuals who are motivated by the desire for approval from the

white population. This attitude is a result of dehumanisation that a given individual has suffered as a result of colonization.

The African worldview of psychopathology promotes a culture-specific method of

understanding mental illness, which approach does it adopt?

Classification manuals such as the DSM-V and ICD10 International Classification of Diseases [ICD]) fall under which approach?

To better understand how culture influences

mental illness, which three main theoretical positions from a cross-cultural approach are used? 

An emic view of a culture is the perspective of an outsider looking in,

whereas an etic view is a focus on the intrinsic cultural distinctions that are meaningful

to members of a given society – an insider perspective

The difference between DSM-IV-TR and DSM-V is that DSM-V 

discarded the multiaxial system of diagnosis

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(formerly Axis I, Axis II, and Axis III), listing them under one section. Axes IV and V have

been replaced, and listed as psychosocial and contextual features. 

The fourth edition of the DSM was a multi-axial system which evaluated the individual

on five axes or dimensions, choose the correct axes or dimensions;

Western

conceptualisations of psychopathology seem to rest on normal versus abnormal

functioning whilst African traditional conceptualisations are based on societal and cosmological relationships.