文化變遷에 따른 精神疾患 槪念 및 治療法에 관한 見解調查

Opinions about mental illness in Acculturation

Opinion about the cause and desirable way of treatment of mental illnesses, psychoses and epilepsy, were collected from 379 rural peoples and 201 peoples in Seoul city by individual informal interviews. Purposefully, the interview were limited to old people over 50 year of age who were resident in the rural areas with traditional Way of life, and to the relatively civilized peoples who had been resident in Seoul for the past ten years. The results from the two sources were compared and discussed from the point view of acculturation. It was obvious that the concepts in cause and treatment of mental illnesses was shifted from the primitive ᄋriention to the modern oiie. Shamanistic and primitive medicinal concepts were almost neglected in Seoul sample, whereas the two concepts were definitely high as 53.2% for psychoses, 88.3% for epilepsy in rural sample. Seoul sample unexpectedly revealed high psychological orientation： to the causs of psychoses and even to the cause of epilepsy as 88.5% and 17.6% each. On the other, rural sample manifested the psychological orientation to the cause psychoses and epilepsy as 46. 8% and 3. ^% respectively. Way of treatment was also evidently changed; supernatural and primitive medicinal treatments for the mental Illnesses were scarcely adviced by Seoul people, whereas the two treatments were adviced by the rural people in 44.5% and 18.6% each for the psychoses, and 4: 4% and 63.4% for the epilepsy. Folkpsychological way of treatment for the psychoses was 61.7% in Seoul, 20. 0% in the rural area. Even for the epilepsy, this psychological treatment was 22.2% in Seoul, 2.5% in rural area. Opinion about the efficacy of modern medicine in the the treatment of mental illnesses was still negative. Favorable result of modern medical approach for the psy choses could be expected only in 28. 6% of Seoul sample, 8.9% of rural sample. That of modern medical appraoch for the epilepsy could be only in 36.4% of Seoul sample and 10.5% of rural sample. Seoul sample responded to the psychoses as curable in 59.3%, but rural sample did in 20.2%. For the prognosis of epilepsy, Seoul sample responded as “curable” in 27.4% and rural sample only in 3. 0%. It was impressed that the concept and way of treatment of mental illnesses were apparently changing from the primitive to the civilized by acculturation process. Two kinds of problem would be suggested. 0n6 is a discrepancy between concept and real attitude. Seoul people are interestingly enough to have desirable conceptual change of mental illnesses, while they frequently practice shamanistic and primitive medicinal approaches. By such reason, it would be likely that the conceptual acculturation would be the initial step to change, and attitudinal acculturation would be clearly later. The attitudinal acculturation is still intermingled with primitive and modern approaches. Another problem is poor expectation to modern medicine in the treatment of mental illnesses. Prognositc view is also not so favorable as expected, even the Seoul sample is more favorable than the rural is. Furthermore, they, both Seoul and rural peoples, have various kinds of psychological or folkpsychological causes and treatment. This tendency is more prevalent in Seoul. These patterns easily suggest a difficulty of secondary prevention in Korea,