A Cultural Psychological Theory of Mental Illness, Sup- ported by Research in Saudi Arabia

This article proposes a theory of psychological disturbance (mental illness) as a cultural phenomenon. The theory is based on – and extends-- the general cul-tural psychological theory of Vygotsky, Luria, and Leontiev, as well as the spe-cific social approach to psychopathy of Fromm, Foucault, Laing, and Rieber. We demonstrate that the psychodynamics of individual disturbances are shaped by normative, macro cultural factors, such as gender norms, religious doctrine, fam-ily structure, architecture, and clothing. We illustrate this cultural psychological analysis of individual psychology with a case study of a 25 year old Saudi obses-sive compulsive patient in Riyadh backed by 50 interviews with students about family relations in Saudi Arabia. We discuss the therapeutic and political implica-tions of our cultural theory of psychological disturbance