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Sammanfattning

Historical and cultural variations with respect to mental disorders are sometimes used to support a relativist view of diagnoses. On this view, it is not an objective matter whether someone in another culture has a certain mental disorder or not, since these disorders are culturally constructed. This view also implies that it is impossible to obtain valid epidemiological knowledge across cultures. In this article, the authors argue against this view, and claim that historical and cultural variation do not imply relativism. They do so by distinguishing different types of variation, showing in each case how the variation is compatible with an objective understanding of diagnoses. The conclusion is that it may be difficult, but not impossible in principle, to compare the extent of mental disorders across cultures

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