DELUSIONS of CULTURE:
In 1904, Kraepelin concluded that Javanese natives showed few paranoid
symptoms and he attributed that attributed that to the fact that at that time the abstract
thinking of most natives in Java was still relatively undeveloped.
In Egypt, Okasha found that the persecutory delusions with ideas of reference
were the rule; delusions of grandeur were not common. Systematized delusions were
not common except in the educated group.
Zarrouge who studied Arab schizophrenia in Saudi Arabia had pointed out that care
has to be taken in eliciting symptoms in Saudi Arabia society where belief in possible
adverse influence of the Devil (Shaitan) on man is entertained by normal people. He
added that only the psychiatrist who is experienced in the Arabian culture will be able to
differentiate delusory cultural beliefs that receive general acceptance from delusion that
indicate pathological deviance beyond what is culturally shared. He also compared
Saudian Arabic schizophrenic patients with the English patients of Mellor (1970). He
found that somatic passivity, made impulsive, made volition and made affect were the
most frequent symptoms that were higher than in English patients