The rude, rough, friendless rehab road—chasing mental health

Abstract

It is well known that the experience of mental illness is different in the Western and non-Western countries. The genesis of mental suffering has cultural and historical roots. When suffering comes from a social milieu, can its solutions come from another social context? Instead of blindly pursuing mental health models of the West, developing and traditional societies need to understand their problems within their own socio-historical contexts. This chapter is an autoethnographic account of how this researcher has been trying to grapple with some broader issues related to mental health in India. In this chapter, four narratives are presented which relate to the experiences of one independent researcher, who is also a member of a non-profit organization. These storied accounts explicate on the difficulties of rehabilitation in mental health, in a society where people face insurmountable barriers due to disabilities in the past and in current circumstances. This chapter raises questions about the manner research criteria are established in Indian universities, what constitutes legitimate research and what should a research agenda be for a society that wants to carve its own possibilities of intervention. These experiences are presented to highlight the socio-cultural imperatives of dealing with mental health issues in a developing country like India.