see here Brain fag syndrome - Wikipedia and returns plenty of google hits, allegedly some widespread problem with concentration and mental functioning in school boys in West Africa.
So, does anybody have direct experience with this? Is this a dubious academic hypothesis or an accepted belief in the culture over there? Is this observed only in complex academic subjects (where maybe the kids are not smart enough and motivated enough to bother) or even in simple literacy stuff in primary school?
Based on your Wikipedia link, I could diagnose myself with it. I don’t live in Africa, though.
That is about the most ill-defined psychiatric disorder that I have ever read about. I would be a little depressed and anxious if I was a poor person in Africa too but I know a lot of upper-middle class professionals in the U.S. that have the same symptoms.
that’s true, but my question still stands :-). Incidentally, note that the “common knowledge” of the culture of upper-middle class professionals does not, AFAIK, deem this a major problem even though it may well in practice be one. Just like the same culture does not deem lack of technical knowledge by managers to be a problem even though it is often a very serious one. Meanwhile, what does the “common knowledge” of people in West Africa think about the issues of these school boys?
Off-topic, but I’m getting a kick out of the culture-specific syndromes page linked from the Wikipedia article. “Sir, you’ve got Jumping Frenchman of Maine disorder …”
Thanks for that link; there’s a lot of fascinating material there!
I always find the definitions of these to be really odd. Everyone seems to act like the term means that different cultures don’t regard them as real. But pretty much all of them I’ve seen are actually acknowledged under out system, just under a different name or cause. The big difference seems to be how big a deal it is.
Of course, our system is also a product of our culture. Illness is more of a cultural phenomena than we might thing. Probably they are wondering why we sit around calling it “depression” when to them it’s clearly “brain fag.”
What is considered to be a devastating disability in one culture may be no big thing in another. For example, a man who cannot see well enough to read may be screwed in our culture but only mildly disabled in a farming culture. Whereas in our culture it’s actually pretty common for people to be so overweight they struggle to walk even a mile, whereas in other cultures that would be a profound and life disrupting disability.
Mental disorders are especially subjective because the lines of what is “normal” and “acceptable” thought processes and behavior vary so much across cultures.
This old Atlantic Monthly article might be of interest – addressing, among other things, how conditions can evolve to match diagnoses – focusing on the specific example of what’s currently known as “Body Dismorphic Disorder”.
As even sven suggests, I think a lot of psychological disfunction morphs to fit the cultural preconceptions of the sufferer and the observer.