Monday, April 6, 2015

Social Work Exam and Culture: Maladi Moun

Continuing with DSM-5's culture-bound syndromes, here's maladi moun.

Here's a definition from Medscape:
Aka "humanly caused illness" found in Haitian communities, is seen as an explanation for a number of medical and psychiatric symptoms. It is thought that illness is literally "sent" by others out of envy and hatred and can describe psychosis, depressive symptoms, and even academic or social problems.
There are other, similar conditions, per the World Health Org:
Haitians divide illnesses into several broad categories, including: maladi Bondye (God’s disease, or those of “natural” origin), maladi peyi (“country”, or common, short-term ailments), maladi moun fè mal (magic spells sent because of human greed), and those of supernatural origin, maladi lwa (‘disease of God’) and maladi Satan (Satan’s or “sent” sicknesses)  
The Dictionary of Psychology entry on the topic is here. As of this writing, that about does it for what the web has to offer. But it should be more than enough to field a question about maladi moun on the social work licensing exam. Good luck!

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