Recent news that autistic adults ‘fear abuse’, according to the National Autistic Society (NAS), further highlights the fact that mental health stigma is still a major issue in this country. Half of the 1,300 sufferers questioned by the NAS said they had been abused by a so-called ‘friend’, 37% said they had been manipulated to…
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Initiation rites are an integral part of traditional societies. An initiation rite is a ritual or ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. In modern society, initiation ceremonies usually mark the transition into adulthood, as demarcated by the community. Examples of such ceremonies would include the Christian baptism, the Jewish Bar and…
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An individual can display certain symptoms, but whether they are an indication of schizophrenia or shamanic abilities depends largely on the cultural context. By cultural context I mean the collective beliefs, values, expectations and responses of the community which shape the mentality and behaviour of the individuals within that community. Mental illness is heavily influenced…
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There is a heavy stigma attached to people who don’t (and don’t want to) get married or have kids. Both are essentially rites of passage in modern society. I myself don’t have any urge to get married or have kids, but I am only 22, so I cannot rule out the possibility that in the…
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The placebo effect remains as the most bizarre aspect of modern medicine. The placebo effect occurs when a patient is led to believe that they are receiving a medically effective treatment, when in fact they are receiving none. The most influential studies investigating the placebo effect usually involve sugar pills or ‘dummy pills’, the purpose…
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