Towards Community - Reflections on Community Psychiatry, Culture and Alterity

<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> The constant transformation of communities and its relationship with mental illness has been studied and debated for the past decades, although it is still not clear how it has been incorporated in clinical practice.</p><p><strong>Aims:</strong> The authors propose to review the relevance to Psychiatry, especially Community Psychiatry, of understanding communities as well as the methodologies and conceptual frameworks that allow that approach.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> Selected and critical review of the literature about Community Psychiatry and Culture, Communities, and Social Inequity and Mental Health.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> The authors start by reviewing the meaning of Community and the defining principles of Community Psychiatry in their relationships with cultural sensitivity. This aspect is illustrated with two examples of the impact of culture and alterity in the understanding of Mental Health and Service Organization, one at the level of International and Global Mental Health, and the other at the local communities’ level. In this context, participatory action research is highlighted.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Psychiatry, in particular Community Psychiatry, by acknowledging a wide range of methodologies and being open to transdisciplinary models, is in a privileged position of electing communities as a field of investigation and integrate it in its praxis.