Psychology

Studies concerning beliefs and attitudes of the members of public towards patients whop are mentally ill have time and again revealed remarkable ignorance and as  well as hostility towards individuals deemed to be insane. Some people believe that mental illness is as a result of sociological and family causes and are thus superstitious about the real causes of mental illness. On the other hand other people believe that this type of illness is caused by biological factors. The view of the article that psychological disorders can be caused by cultural factors is not in order (Shiraev  Levy, 2010).

Article critique
The article suggests that subjective experiences of an individual such as knowledge concerning psychological problems can bring about psychological disorders. These are only perceptions and can only remain as such and cannot be said to have any effect in the normal behavior of an individual. The distress idioms that are based on culture have been explained to have an impact on the manner individuals of such a cultural background express and explain their symptoms of psychological disorder. However, most of the symptoms of mental illnesses and other psychological disorders are observable and the patient expresses such symptoms involuntarily without referring to the distress symptoms associated with his or her culture (Shiraev  Levy, 2010).

The article further suggests that diagnoses that are based on culture for various types of psychological disorders such as non-professional and professional judgments have an impact on these disorders. The non-professionals can diagnose these disorders without any standards and thus apply their cultural experiences concerning such illness, but the same is not applicable for the professionals who apply the set standards while developing their judgments concerning the causes of these disorders. The article argues that treatment based on culture that is, the manner in which people try to conquer the psychopathological symptoms suggests that these disorders are cultural based. To some extent this is true, but it is limited in that similar treatments can be applied across several cultures with different beliefs concerning these disorders. The fact that similar treatment can be applied indicates that these disorders have similar causes and thus treatment based on culture does not hold (Shiraev  Levy, 2010).

Furthermore, the article states that the different views held by people from different cultures concerning the real causes of these illnesses are primarily subjective. Subjectivity indicates significant biasness and does not regard ant scientific research concerning the causes of the disorders. The subjective facts concerning these disorders are therefore not supported by any relevant data and can therefore not be analyzed in order to draw an objective conclusion. Subjectivity ignores any standards apart from the cultural ones which are likely to change depending on the cultural aspects of a society and what they value and the influence of the individuals propagating such beliefs. It is therefore not possible to rely on subjectivity in determining the causes of psychological disorders as has been suggested in the article (Shiraev  Levy, 2010).

Conclusion
The view of the article that psychological disorders are caused by cultural factors is not in order. Even if it is possible for people to believe that mental illnesses are caused by such factors, such believes are not correct. If they were correct then the treatment of such disorders could vary across cultures. However, standards of treating these illnesses exist and people from different cultural backgrounds can be treated using similar methods. This is a good indicator that the psychological disorders are not caused by cultural factors as it is believed by some societies.